The Definition of Love
by Suneh
Summary: When two long lost friends meet each other again, they go on a trip around Azeroth. When all goes wrong they begin to realize they might like each other as more than just friends.
1. Chapter 1

Some say that the silence before a battle could kill a man. _If silence could wield a dagger, that probably would be true _Ruanae thought. The Night Elf hunter rested upon a mighty Snow Saber as they waited for the beginning of what would be a promising battle at Alterac Valley. She looked around at the grim faced soldiers of all the races of the Alliance, male and female. Everyone was dead silent; everyone thinking that if they spoke that would have been the last breath they would have taken. Ruanae's Snow Saber, who she called Winter, gave and uneasy growl. She placed a gloved hand on him, trying to sooth him yet again from the many battles they charged into together. Her blue hair was tied up in a small ponytail with the rest of her hair falling down in soft waves that were barely recognizably to the naked eye. She had two marks on each side of her face, going from her forehead down through her eye to her chin. Her pale purple skin was looking slightly paler than usual under her mail amour. It was white so she could blend in with her Saber and the environment. 

She looked back up to the iron gates that were holding them back from charging out there and blowing the horde halfway to Outlands, whatever that was. She only heard rumors and how far away it was, on a different planet. She shivered at the thought of what it might look like.

A dwarf with snowy owls came up to them all from within the caves they were waiting in. She nodded once to them all and went back to hide within the caves. Ruanae sighed as the dwarf walked away without a backwards glance. She began to get ready, for the gates would be opening soon and she had to do something before the battle or the silence would kill her. Others seemed to have the same idea as they began to fiddle with potions and checking the spells they had cast upon themselves.

Ruanae called her pet from the depths of the cave and a snowy tiger stood beside her as the other hunters also called their pets to them. She drew out her bow and knocked an arrow into it, frowning as she muttered a spell on the arrow until it glowed with arcane power. She felt bad for the person who would have this sticking out of their chest.

Her attention snapped up to the suddenly moving gates. Everyone turned to the gates. When the gates were fully raised, everyone charged out into the snow.

An artic breeze blew over Ruanae's face and arms making her shiver. Her courage slowly came back to her as someone began to yell out words of encouragement to the soldiers, it almost made her feel slightly bigger. She leaned forward into Winter, allowing the saber to run faster. They soon came to the first Horde outpost. She favored taking this one for half the army was hidden around a bend. A daring rouge would sneak up on the outpost watchers, and run back to the army. She would almost laugh as the rouge would jump back behind everyone as the Orcs and Tauren came around the corner, stopping in their tracks as they saw them. She felt bad when she ran past the burning and arrow filled corpses though.

The rouge that had dragged the outpost watchers had snuck past the battle and ripped the Horde flag off the stone and replaced it with the many Alliance banners he had with him.

The Alliance army was stopped at a tower full of archers shooting fire arrows at them. Ruanae panicked as an arrow flew past her head, landing in the snow behind her. Idmetiadly she ordered her pet, Cloud, to attack them and she watched him run up the stairs out of sight. She drew her bow again and shot at them without mercy.

An Orc archer saw her enthusiasm and took careful aim at her. She was on the side of the tower where nobody saw her. She smiled wickedly as she drew an arrow, not flaming since she was out of mana to light it. She was just about to release when a white tiger jumped at her, knocking the arrow crooked. The Orc was down in no time but the damage was done to Ruanae. The arrow whizzed by her head, putting a long cut just above her long purple ear. She screamed out in pain as the pain shot through her skull. She felt dizzy, confused. Her muscles tightened up as she slowly fell off the Winter but it was all in slow motion to her. She felt dead, but she was still breathing.

Somebody must have noticed this since another arrow had been shot at her and catching her in the arm, she yelled out in pain again and the world turned black.

Tahlian hated these battles. _Why must so many die for one simple battle?_ He thought as he and a priest went about the ruins of yet another lost battle.

He got off his Mist Saber, seeing a wounded man with an arrow sticking out of his side. He hated being assigned to cleaning up after battles, he was a Druid and he could fight. Sure, he was a damn good healer to but he felt he could help out in the battles. He kneeled down and took the arrow from his side with a gentle hand. Placing his hand on the wound, he muttered some words and natural light came from his fingertips onto the wound. The man gasped as his side healed itself and Tahlian helped him to his feet.

"Ill take him back," the human said in a rush, obviously wanting to get back to the portal to Stormwind, the human capital city.

Tahlian nodded as he jumped back onto the tiger and searched for any other wounded people who could be rescued. As he searched, he began to think again.

I know my position is highly important, but why not give it to a priest instead? I have seen priests going into battles and never coming back out because of the fact they cant defend themselves.

He came to the first outpost they captured. He looked around as he walked up to the first tower. Something caught his eye as he came around the bend. He gasped as he saw it to be a Night Elf, and by the looks of it she was barely hanging on. A Snow Saber was kneeling next to her and looked up to see Tahlian then looked back down to his master, gently prodding her with his nose.

Tears sprang to his eyes as he saw what a bond they must have. Most mounts would just run off frightened. He nearly jumped off the Saber and rushed to her. She was lying on her back, her breaths shallow. He turned her over and looked at the gash on her head. He winced at it. It looked pretty bad.

Not wanting to touch it, he muttered some words under his breath and his whole hand this time began to glow. Gently, he placed his fingers around the cut and the magic flowed into her head, found the wound, and healed it. Next he carefully pulled the arrow out of her arm and wove healing waves into it. She was still out cold. Nervously, he placed a hand on her forehead. She had a fever. He began to lift her when he realized she felt extremely tense in his arms as he stood up. He sighed, as she would probably not be able to move for a couple of days when she woke up.

The Saber kneeled down so he could get up on it, and he placed the Night Elf in front of him so she was leaning back on him. Tahlian prayed she would not wake up during the ride back, otherwise he would find himself in a quite uncomfortable position.

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A young Night Elf sat on the stone ground in the inn. She was 5 years old. Her eyes were unmoving as she stared at the Northern road out of Dolonnar, her home.

_"You know, you have to eat sometime Little One," the child's mother said placing down some bread and morning glory dew on a tray in front of the waiting child._

_"He will be back today, I know it." The Little One said with a positive attitude. _

_"I hope he will to," said the older Elf sighed, her gaze looking at the road where the Male Night Elf was supposed to come from along with the other Elves who had gone into battle. _

_"I KNOW he will be coming soon," said the child, as she began to nibble on the bread her mother brought her, "And I'm waiting here all day until he does come." The mother laughed._

_"I suppose I'll have to then also," she replied sitting down gracefully next to her daughter, wrapping an arm around her, "since you are to, and you know how bored I get when I'm not spending time with you. You make things so interesting, Little One." She laughed_

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Ruanae's eyes flickered open. Searing pain infested her vision as she did. She let out a soft moan. As the pain subsided, and her vision cleared she appeared to be staring at a ceiling. She tried to move her arm, but she found she could not, just her head. She looked sideways to find another Night Elf was watching her, but he looked like a druid. He coughed and then spoke nervously.

"Hi"

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A/N: Hi people, my first story! REVIEW! I want to see if it stunk or not! D


	2. Chapter 2

The Night Elf spoke nervously when she looked at him, "Hi, Ruanae." She was surprised to hear her name come from him. _Who is he? How did he know my name?_ Ruanae thought.

"W-who are you? H-how do you k-know my name?" she said, stumbling over words from lack of strength. He smiled at her.

"Ah, you don't remember me, Ruanae? I must say, I feel hurt," he put the back of his hand to his forehead in a dramatic position with the other hand clutching his heart, "Oh, the pain…" a light clicked in Ruanae's memory. Tahlian! He was the only Night Elf who was THAT dramatic.

She nearly laughed as she spoke, "Tahlian!" he walked over to her and put a huge smile on as he sat in the chair near the bed, "You gave me quite a scare there, old friend. I thought we lost you." He pointed to his head at her confused expression.

"Oh," she smile faltered, "All I remember is getting an arrow to the head then just pain." He frowned.

"This is not the time for talking, but more for caring for you." He walked over to a table and brought back a bucket of water with a cloth and a dish of vegetables. He laughed again and gave her a smile, "I remember when I had to care for you when your father and mother were away when you were sick like this. You always protested against me having to even lifting a finger for you." She smiled at him.

"I'm not sure I can stop you this time." She said with a laugh. She laugh was cut short when she felt pain in her head, she must have showed it on her face because Tahlian was asking her what was wrong. "My head. It burns."

He frowned, "You have a fever and probably a splitting headache." He picked up the cloth and socked it in water and placed it on her head, "You need to rest Ruanae. You can have your food when you wake up." She took no time to fall back asleep.

Tahlian sighed as she left his company. He always loved to hang out with Ruanae, and just like her mother said all the time, she made things interesting. He lay back in his chair, and leaned it back on the back two feet of it and began to look through memories he had not visited for some time.

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_There was a loud bang on the door. "TAHLIAN!" Ruanae yelled from outside Tahlian's house. He groaned as he looked out of the window. It looked early. Far to early to get up. "Come ON Tahlian, you PROMISED you would come this time!"_

"_Ten more minutes…" he groaned as he pulled the blanket over his head. It was quiet. He smiled as he thought she went away, at least for now. Wrong. A stone came whizzing in through the window and hit him on the shoulder. It hurt, but it was not enough to be concerned about. He smiled at the chance to make her feel bad. _

"_OUUCHHHE!" he yelled and bolted up, clutching his arm as if he let go his arm would come off. He looked out the window to see a pissed off Ruanae. He moaned some more and turned away from her and rolled from one side to the other on his bed. He opened one eye to see Ruanae's eyes widen and she jumped right through the window landing gracefully on his bed. _

"_Are you alright Tahlian?? I swear, I didn't mean to hurt you! I was just trying to get you up!" She began to stammer more, "Because you PROMISED!" He began to laugh at her fear, and slowly her eyes turned into a glare and she playfully whacked him on his arm. _

"_Get up you big drama king!" she yelled. _

"_Is everything all right in there, Tahlian?" Tahlian's mother walked through the wooden door and didn't seem surprised to see Ruanae there, "Good morning Ruanae, would like some breakfast?" she said in a kind voice._

"_Oh, no thank you Mrs. Dawns," she said dragging Tahlian over to his wooden wardrobe and plopping him down, "My mother gave me some before I left. Me and Tahlian will be gone for most of the day today, so I brought us some lunch to." And she revealed a little package that was full of food from the backpack she was carrying. She put it back and looked at Tahlian who was still complaining, "Come on Tal. You PROMISED you would come…Thank you anyways Mrs. Dawns!" she said as she smiled at his mother again. "I'll be back in around ten minutes." And she jumped on Tahlian's bed, using the extra bounce to lift herself out through the window landing on the ground below from the two-story house. _

_Tahlian grumbled and plopped himself right back into his bed. His mother smiled at him, "I'll go and get your backpack."_

_Ruanae was waiting for him at the same window she jumped from. She waved at him from below. He waved back and jumped the ten feet down to the closest branch of the huge tree that was directly next to his window. Ruanae had climbed the rest of it obviously to get into his bedroom. _

_He slid the rest of it down on his feet; it was almost like a slide that winded its way in every direction. He landed right next to her and she smiled at him._

"_Ready to go, Tal?" she said with the glint in her eye that only meant adventure was sure to follow. _

"_As ready as I'll ever bee Rua." He said with a yawn._

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Ruanae closed her eyes and began to dream again.

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_They had been waiting for hours, staring at the road when they heard a happy yell from one of the guards. Ruanae shot up and ran to her with her mother not far behind. _

"_What did you see?!" she said with a sparkle in her eyes tugging at the tall female guard's hand. She smiled down at her and pointed toward a moving dot in the distance. _

"_That's them!" she said happily. Ruanae gave a happy yell and was about to run all the way down the road when her mother grabbed her in mid-jump and held her like a toddler again. _

"_They will reach here, don't worry Rua." But her eyes were filled with the same desire to run down the road to where the soldiers were coming. _

_Five minutes passed and the whole town had come out by now waiting to see there loved ones again. The dots were becoming more and more clearer and Ruanae's mother trusted her enough now to let her down and she stood next to her best friend, Tahlian. They were whispering excitedly to one another. _

_Another couple minutes passed and now the figures were clearly seen. All of them were ridding upon proud looking Night and Snow Sabers. The village couldn't contain themselves anymore, everyone ran out to meet them and they all stopped walking waiting for them to reach them each on of them wearing the biggest smiles their faces could hold. _

_Ruanae ran between families crying happily, hugging and crying there loved ones. She was trying to find him in the crowd. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. She could see Tahlian's father had lifted him in the air and hugged him silently, tears coming from his eyes while the mother was hugging both of them. _

_She began to walk now, wondering where her father was. She couldn't bring herself to think that he had died… her father always seemed to be immortal. Like he would NEVER die. Silently she began to walk to the back, the crowd was disappearing now back into the village. She sat down and put her face into her arms and wept. Someone placed an arm around her and she only wept more. _

"_R-ruanae?" came a choked up voice. She was confused. It didn't sound like her mother. She looked up and stared into a male Night Elf's eyes, her mother standing a bit back, smiling happily. _

"_Father?" she said, one word that was full of emotion. He lifted her into the air with a laugh and hugged her tightly. She hadn't seen him for so long, probably a year. She hadn't remembered the jokes he would say or him smile that was contagious. But the most important thing she forgot was just him._

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Tahlian watched as Ruanae gave out a sob in her sleep and a single tear fell from her eyes. A smile crept on her face. He knelt next to her bed and brushed the tear off.

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A/N: Hi! Just wanted to say to review PLEASE since I like NEED to know what you think, its my first fan fic so I am welcoming all thoughts about it! Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

Ruanae opened her eyes to find she was alone in her room in the inn. "Tahlian?" she whispered through a sore and clogged throat, "Tahlian are you there?" the druid heard her from across the hallway and opened his door. He walked in and flicked on the light.

"You need water." He stated and took a cup from the table full of water and walked over to her. He lifted her up on the pillows and helped her drink the cool water inside it.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

He laughed, "You wont be thanking me when I spoon feed you again." She opened her mouth to protest when he put a mouthful of food in her mouth.

She swallowed and said, "I hate you." He laughed at this.

"I know."

After much talking and laughs from old memories he called in a house maid to help her into a cloth top and pants so she wouldn't have to sleep in her amour again. Tahlian left into his own bedroom. It was nearly exactly the same as hers, a two-person bed, table in the far left corner, and a wardrobe in the top right, and a few chairs scattered around. His staff was resting on the wall near the table. It was special and helped him change forms. His favorite form, he had to admit, was the cat form. What was there not to like?

You could fool your enemies into thinking you're an adorable little pussycat and when their back it turned, you rip them to shreds. In cat form he would stay warmer and saved him more than once from the cold. You could hear and smell things from far away, disappear into shadows, and could tell where certain things were. Ruanae always loved it when he would change into a cat when they were younger, maybe on when he was 15 he spent enough time with the cats he could change into one. He could also change into a bear, but Ruanae didn't like it as much. Changing into a seal would always put a laugh on her face even in the saddest times to.

She had not seen his latest form yet, a cheetah. He could move at least 30, maybe even 40 faster in that form.

A knock came at his door. "She's done." The housemaid said and left without a further word. He walked back into Ruanae's room to find her in the same position but wearing tan cloth pants and a tan cloth shirt with a white cloth shirt underneath. She smiled at him, allowing him in.

"I was just thinking about how you haven't seen my latest form yet Rua." He explained. Ruanae wondered what it was.

"Go on an show me then! I want to see it!" she exclaimed with excitement. He laughed and melted into a cheetah. She gasped. The cheetah Tahlian jumped onto the bed and lay down near her feet. "I wish I could pet you!" she laughed. He looked up at her and his ear flicked to the side. She laughed even harder. "Did you just purr?" her eyes were sparkling with laughing tears.

He purred again. She laughed even harder (if that was possible). When she calmed down, she faced the cheetah that was still looking at her with glowing eyes of laughter.

"I remember when you used to go into your cat form all the time. Made me laugh so hard when your mother asked me why I brought a cat into her house and where you were, since she had never seen you in your cat form before." Cheetah Tahlian sat up and in a blink he had grown back into a Night Elf that was sitting on her bed. He was laughing.

"I remember that. She was so proud of me when I changed back into me." He said. They sat there in a comfortable silence for a moment, each of them thinking about the same memory of his mother gasping in surprise.

"Tahlian?" she said, breaking the silence.

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember those adventures we used to go on?"

"Depends. The life-threatening ones, the go-out-and-explore-the-new-area-you-found-that-was-full-of-"Harmless"-creatures ones, or the ones that you would bring me out to a different view of different places?" she laughed.

"Any of them,"

"They haunt my dreams."

"If I could, I'd slap you right about now."

"I know."

"Would you want to go on another one of those, for old time sake? I miss those times, not a care in the world as we explored." She looked right into his eyes and he looked back into hers.

"You can't move though."

"When I can move."

"We don't know how long that would take."

"More time to plan."

"Where would we go?"

"Anywhere."

"Your making me run out of protests."

"That's what I'm best at." She knew exactly what he would say next, he would give in to her plan that she knew he was dieing to try out.

He sighed, "Fine."

"Your dieing to do this, I can tell." She said with a smirk.

"Whatever you say, Ruanae. When should we start planning?"

"Right now. Go get a map of the world, maybe even try to get one of Outlands to." She watched him get up and leave to search his bags in the opposite room. She smiled; this was going to be a trip to remember. She suddenly remembered questions he had not answered.

Tahlian stepped back into the room carrying two maps, one of Azeroth and one of Outlands. He also carried a quill and ink, and some spare parchment. "Alright, we should," but got cut off by Ruanae.

"Tal, where is Cloud and Winter?" she said in a worried voice.

"Sorry, Cloud and Winter?" he answered with a confused expression

"My Mount and pet." She answered as if it was completely obvious.

"Oh, your Snow Tiger is in the stables along with my Night Saber and your white tiger is also in there. They seem to be staying together." She smiled; Cloud and Winter had always been close.

"Alright, we should start planning now. Where are we right now?"

"Stormwind." He answered, placing an "S" on the little dot that said Stormwind, "Where do we want to end up?"

"Lemme see the outlands map." He showed it to her, "Honor Hold." And he, reluctantly, placed an "F" on the dot that said Honor Hold. He knew better than to argue with Ruanae when she made up her mind about something.

"Alright," he said putting it all on the table across the room. He looked outside. It was growing dark, "You should get some rest. Can you move anything yet?"

Ruanae tried to move and found that happily, she could move her fingers and toes, "Just my fingers and toes."

"A good start. Get some sleep now, Rua. Good night."

"Good night, Tal."

Tahlian closed the door behind him and stepped into him own room across from hers. He took the leather amour off and replaced it with a green sleeveless shirt and green cloth pants. He lay on his bed thinking about how on earth they would survive this trip they were planning on taking. Maybe he should ask around and see if anyone else would come…

A/N: Alright I know this is not moving along but the next chapter I SWEAR will be after they planned the whole trip and everything and Ruanae is fully healed.

And PLEASE PLEASE review if anyone is reading D ill be happy if you do D


	4. Chapter 4

It had been five days since they decided that they would go on the adventure around the world. Ruanae and Tahlian had planned to start at Booty Bay instead and work there way up the Eastern Kingdoms.

They would first fly to Booty Bay, then make there way through the jungle into Duskwood, then Deadwind Pass and continued up until the Western Plaguelands. Then they would take the gryphons back to the Wetlands so they could take a boat to Dustwallow Marsh, Kalidmor.

From there they would go to the Thousand Needles continuing around and up then taking the Hippogriff to Darnassus and completing the trip with a stop at their old homes for a couple days to catch up with everyone (They decided against going to Outlands, only if they felt the need would they go). They thought it would be a nice finish to all the work they would have to do to get all the money to supply the trip. They would have to do random jobs around the world to earn the money for food and resting and the cost of flight and boats.

Ruanae woke up to see a shining sun in the sky. She yawned and stretched her aching limbs. She had gained her full mobility just yesterday and she was taking full advantage of it. She climbed out of her bed and went into the hallway, and knocking on Tahlian's door. No answer. She opened the door to find the room empty, but his armor was still resting on the table near the door. She assumed he went down for some breakfast.

She walked down the stairs into the nearly empty tavern room. There were tables lining across the floor with a bar to her right with a bartender using a rag to clean a glass. Behind the bar was an open door that leads to the kitchens and as she made her way over to the bar to order, she saw the cook busily rushing around and getting started for the day.

Once she ordered she saw Tahlian in the middle of the room looking over the maps and parchment full of items they had to get like tents, flint and tinder, radiations and things like that to start out on. She smiled and made her way over to him. She sat across from him and he looked up from the maps and spoke.

"Good morning Ruanae."

"Morning Tahlian, you know, its possible to damage your eyes by looking at the same things thousands of times over." She said, joking.

He rolled his eyes at this and placed the map down, "I just want to make sure we have everything set," then he looked back at the map nervously, "You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring someone else along, you know? Maybe someone who is a good healer so when we get into trouble they can heal us if I'm out of energy to heal."

"But what if that time doesn't happen? Then we would have to pay that person for no reason at all. I'll tell you what, if that time DOES come around and it happens we can hire someone in the next city we come across, ok?"

Tahlian sighed. It was at least something. "Alright."

A waiter came over and brought them their breakfasts. Tahlian's was made up of eggs and a glass of Morning Glory Dew and Ruanae's was bread and some milk. They began to eat as they discussed when they should leave. They decided it would be best to leave as soon as possible, so they would buy all the equipment today and leave first thing tomorrow.

After breakfast, they got back into their armor and headed off to the General Store. They bought some Flint and Tinder, a tarp to be used as a tent, and a couple blankets to sleep on. The bags were a bit pricey; to they headed across the street to the Auction House.

"And we have ONE gold do I hear two gold? We have TWO gold here for this fabulous sword! Do I hear five gold? I see FIVE GOLD! Do I hear six gold? Once? Twice? SOLD to the young lad with the funny looking hat!" and the Human came up to hand the money over and took the sword away.

"Excuse me, Sir," Tahlian asked the Auctioneer, "Is there any bags for sale?"

"Why of course there is good Sir! We have them going from this simple Green one" he held up a little green bag that looked like it could hold maybe six items in it, "To this fine netherweave one!" and he held up a bag made from netherweave that looked like it could hold up to maybe 18-20 items, he wasn't sure.

"Is there any that can hold up to twelve items?"

"Of course there is! We have two of them for sale, 90 silver each!"

"90 silver?" Tahlian asked, he sighed, "Very well." And he pulled out the sum and took the two silver bags giving one to Ruanae.

"Better than a gold, we saved twenty silver at least." Ruanae said, looking at the bright side.

They walked around and bought a small axe to hang around Ruanae's belt to cut down firewood. They also went into a strange looking store that Ruanae usually avoided. She looked at Tahlian questionably when he talked to the storeowner about something she couldn't hear. The storeowner ducked behind the counter and put a small seed into his hand and Tal gave over some money. When they were outside Ruanae asked

"What did you buy?"

Tahlian pulled out the seed, and answered, "A seed," when he saw her confused face, "Just incase." And she asked no more questions.

Ruanae wanted to visit Winter and Cloud before they left for lunch so they went over to the stables. Winter nearly killed Ruanae by pouncing on her like a cat and purring non-stop. Cloud had done the same and they were all sitting on the ground inside the stables while Ruanae talked to them in a soft voice.

Tahlian leaned against the place where his mount, Midnight, was sleeping and didn't seem bothered by the noise that Winter and Cloud had just made. He nearly laughed when Ruanae stood up and Cloud had jumped up and put each paw on her shoulders as if saying 'Stay!'

They left and stopped at the nearest inn to have a lunch consisting of some bread and cheese. They wandered around the shops chatting away about the items on sale. They stopped at the weapon shop so Ruanae and Tahlian could each get a suitable melee weapon to use. Tahlian got a small dagger since he would be shape shifted for most of the battles while Ruanae got a balanced one-handed sword. They left and got some extra supplies on their way back to the inn to sleep and start their trip by flying on gryphons to Booty Bay tomorrow.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay another couple days?" the tavern keeper asked as she brought them some packages of food for their journey.

"I wish we could, but we really must be on our way," Ruanae said with a kind smile, "We might be back later on in the month though."

"I'll keep a lookout for you!" she said with a happy smile. She had taken a liking to them and gave the radiations for free.

With a goodbye over their shoulder's they walked over to the stables and asked the stable keeper to have someone bring the mounts and Cloud to Booty Bay and give them to, and only to, Ruanae and Tahlian. He nodded at them and they set off to the flight master.

Upon reaching the flight master, they frowned at the line that was waiting for them.

"You think there will be enough gryphons?" Ruanae said nervously as she counted the line.

"Of course there will be." Although he was nervous about it himself. He wouldn't mind waiting an hour for the next flight out to Booty Bay but he wasn't sure Ruanae would be happy about it.

The line got shorter and shorter and the amount of gryphons grew smaller and smaller until it was there turn in line and there was only one left.

"Eh, sorry about the shortage… unless your going to the same destination?"

"Yes we are traveling together." Ruanae said.

"Ah! That's good then you can share one like the last couple of people. Lady will go in the front, the gentleman will go in the back." They both sat awkwardly as the human strapped them both in. "Where will you be heading to again?"

"Booty Bay." Tahlian answered.

The Flight Master whispered something to the bird and they took off over the edge. It seemed like the bird was going to dive into the water when it veered up at the last moment, causing Ruanae to crash into Tahlian.

Ruanae blushed as she spoke, "Sorry!" she yelled over the wind.

"I think we have a daredevil bird!" Tahlian laughed.

Booty Bay was a long time away from Stormwind, maybe a couple hours. The first hour passed with them trying to even stay on the bird without falling over the edge, since they weren't used to flying two person. Half way into the next hour was them yelling over the wind to each other complementing the sights and talking about what areas to avoid, looking at it from above. Every now and then the bird would take a daring turn or go extremely close to the ground, which made the ride exciting.

"How much longer until we reach Booty Bay?" Ruanae yelled

They were just passing from Duskwood into Stranglethorn, "Around thirty minutes I think judging by the surroundings."

"I don't think I can sit like this for another thirty minutes." Ruanae complained.

"Well, you can either lean back or jump off. Take your pick." Tahlian said slightly embarrassed suddenly.

"Wouldn't that bother you?" Ruanae yelled a bit uncertainly.

"No." Tahlian yelled back. Ruanae shrugged and slowly leaned herself back onto Tahlian, blushing slightly, but she felt a lot more comfortable.

They argued for the rest of the ride about if they should wonder into the jungle and off the road.

Ruanae sat up as the goblin town came into sight. They swerved right into it and the gryphon landed gracefully near the dwarf Flight Master.

"You have one daredevil gryphon in your hands, Sir…" Tahlian laughed as they dismounted and stretched.

"Aye, indeed he his." He said, patting the bird with his hand.

They left him and went down and through the town stopping at the stable master to get there mounts and Cloud. They didn't need to lead them since they followed right behind them while Cloud was walking right next to Ruanae. They talked as they left the small cave leading into Booty Bay and climbed onto Winter and Midnight.

"So," Tahlian said looking at the map, "We should just follow the road right out of Stranglethorn –" but Ruanae cut him off.

"I want to visit the arena! I heard from some people that the winner gets a big prize, but you have to fight your way to it. I want to see how exactly people can survive with people coming at them from all ends. We might pick up a few tricks for fighting even!"

"I thought you hated watching people kill each other?"

"I do, but this is for a different reason. Common, where is your sense of adventure Tal?"

"You killed it years ago…"

"Posh. I brought it to life when we were young since you had non of it."

"Of course…" he said, putting an "X" on the arena on the map. They came to the first bend as the mounts walked on. They each sat in silence, thinking.

* * *

"_As ready as I ever will be" Tahlian yawned._

_They set off south of Dolanaar. _

"_Where are we going this time?" Tahlian complained_

"_To the lake." Ruanae said simply, "Then we are going to check out a cave I found near the end of it!" _

_Tahlian sighed. "Great." He mumbled._

_They stopped at the edge of the lake, munching on the bread that Ruanae had brought. They took off their shoes and let their feet dip in the water as they talked and laughed without a care in the world. Soon, they were off again marching down the river connecting the two lakes._

_It took around thirty minutes as they walked along talking and dodging the elementals along the riverbanks. Just when Tahlian was about to ask how they would get across the water, Ruanae took off her shoes and dove head first into the water. He sighed and followed her into the cold water. _

_He opened his eyes as he held his breath under the clear water. Pushing himself across with his arms and legs he emerged at the other side without taking another breath. Ruanae waiting there, sitting down and placing the last shoe on her feet. When they were ready, they set off soaked to the bone till they saw a cave that had many elementals around it. _

_Ruanae seemed disappointed, "How are we supposed to get in?" she pouted. _

_Tahlian, hating seeing her put down grabbed her hand and he led her around the elementals to the top of the cave. He put a finger to his lips to signal to be quiet. He looked down to the ground and frowned. He searched in his mind for his druid magic. When he found it, he struggled with some words that stumbled out of his mouth. A stable branch came growing out of the earth, straight up and then to the left and back down again making a perfect place to grab your hands onto._

_Ruanae gasped in delight. He smiled and turned his back to the beam of branch. He was extremely glad Rua had him practice his agility everyday. Jumping slightly backwards, he blindly grabbed the branch in mid-jump and swung himself twice on it and landing, gracefully, on the ground. He signaled for her to do the same._

"_And you said I didn't have a sense of adventure" Tahlian smirked, looking at her from the corner of his eye._

"_I am proven wrong." She said smiling as they faced the entrance of the cave, not knowing what lay inside.

* * *

_

Meanwhile, Ruanae was consumed with her own thoughts.

* * *

_Ruanae cried until her eyes were red and puffy with happy tears as her father held her and brought her inside their house. She had fallen asleep in his arms, so he gently placed his daughter on her bed and covered her with the thin blanket. _

_She awoke hours later. She jumped out of her bed and rushed down the stairs to find that her parents were talking in hushed voices, cuddled up together with her mother's head resting on her fathers. Not wanting to disturb them but wanting to jump in her fathers lap at the same time, she went to make some breakfast for them. _

_A couple minutes later she came out of the kitchen carry bread and Morning Glow Dews for all of them on a tray and she stood nervously in the doorframe, unsure of how to confront them. She gave a little cough. They both looked up at her, blushing as they moved themselves apart from on another. She smiled and walked over and placed the tray of food on the wooden table in front of them and leapt into the space between her parents, snuggling close to them wanting to remember the moment when her family was finally together again. _

"_Ruanae, your mother and I were thinking about taking a vacation with the Dawns next week. Southshore seemed like a good idea but Westfall also seemed nice, so we wanted you to do the final decision." He said, smiling down at her with love in his eyes. _

_Ruanae thought for a moment, looked up at her father and spoke, "I'll have to talk about it with Tahlian." He laughed. The letters that Rua's mother had sent him sometimes were about Ruanae's best friend, Tahlian. She said they were inseparable. And, of course, SHE was the one who got them in trouble most of the time. _

"_Alright. But be sure to tell me your answer by tomorrow. We need to start preparing."_

"_Alright, Daddy." Ah, how long it was since she had used that word…_

_A tear threatened to come from his eye at the sound of that word. The last time he had heard that from her was when he was leaving…_

"_**Do you have to go, Daddy?" Ruanae cried with tears flowing from her little eyes.**_

"_**I'm afraid I have to, Little One," he said with equal sadness, "I will be back before you know it, don't worry." And he kissed the top of her head, mounted the War Saber, and walked off with the rest of the soldiers heading for the battles that were sure to find them.**_

_**He glanced looked back to the crying Ruanae who looked so helpless standing there alone on the road. She had followed him outside, wanting to ask the question that had been burning in her mind. He waved to her slowly and slowly turned back around.**_

"_Dad?" Ruanae repeated, "Daddy?" this time she was waving a hand in front of his face. He blinked and came out of his flashback. "Are you ok daddy?"_

_He gave her a smile, "Yes, I'm fine."

* * *

_

"We are here." Tahlian said

"Huh?" Ruanae said, confused at first but upon looking at the huge stone arena she realized what he meant, "Oh! How long have we been traveling?"

"Around half an hour." He said looking at the sky as the steered the mounts into the loud arena full of cheering people.

They decided to tie the mounts outside, and keep Cloud watching them as they entered. They looked around for seats in the crowd when Ruanae spotted a couple next to each other on the left side in the middle.

They sat down and waiting for it to start. It didn't take long, they were whispering to each other when a goblin yelled from the middle of the ring, placed the treasure chest in, and ran out of there as fast as his feet could carry him. Once he was safely outside of the ring, he gave another yell and gateways all around the arena opened revealing a single person behind them.

They all ran out except for a smart looking mage. He walked out of the gateway, muttered something under his breath, raised his hand to the sky and a blizzard of ice came falling from the sky around the chest. All of the people stopped in their tracks, looked around and engaged into combat with someone else.

They slashed, pouched, punched, stabbed, and casted without mercy as the same glint was in each of there eyes- the glint of greed. Every time someone fell, Ruanae and Tahlian would flinch. The mage had calmly walked through the battles, blasting his way through with fire jetting out of his fingertips at anyone who would stand in his way. Just as he was about to reach the chest, he fell to the ground, dead with a dagger in his back.

A rouge stood there looking down at the victim. She sighed and pulled her dagger out of him and waited for the next. There was only one other man standing, and he was a warrior.

They stood there, facing each other at the opposite ends of the chest, corpses laying about their feet. Nobody in the stadium breathed as they waiting for somebody to make a move. The Warrior was the one to make that foolish mistake. The rouge grinned evilly as he came charging at her. He raised the two-hand sword above his head, jumped on the chest, jumped, and came down hard.

The rouge parried the attack by putting both daggers in front of her in an "X" position. They attacked each other with equal skill and strength. When one of them would receive a harsh blow, the other would receive one right back. Finally, after them literally forced to dance around one another did the warrior manage to knock the left dagger out of the rouge's hand. Surprise rippled through her as the dagger landed on the sand.

She jumped back, avoiding being split in half by the Warrior. As she ran around, she grabbed a smaller dagger from inside her boot. When she got a clear aim, she threw it and it hit the spot.

At first, the Warrior just stared at the dagger in his heart. Then, slowly, the sword hit the ground with him going along with it. Cheers erupted around the stadium as he hit the ground.

Nobody saw the two Night Elves sneaking out, disgusted looks on their faces.

* * *

A/N: Hi, to whoever is reading. I hope you like it, it takes a lot more time than I thought to write these, lol. But, I got three chapters out and this is the 4th. Yay! My Internet has been down, so I have already started to work on the 5th waiting for the stupid cable people to fix it. Oh right, REVIEW! I like NEED your input on this guys! D 


	5. Chapter 5

"Say it again."

"I already said it like, five times…"

"I need to hear it at least ten times."

Ruanae rolled her eyes. How many times could one elf SAY that it was a stupid idea to go to an arena that caused the other to nearly barf? "It was a stupid idea, I should never had suggested it in the first place…"

Tahlian smiled, "That's good for now." It had been ten minutes since they snuck out of the arena, disgusted at what humans would call "entertainment" when all they saw was death.

It was nearing night, and they were all tired. They set up camp and Tahlian went off to get some firewood. Ruanae had just finished smoothing out the blankets when he returned with stones and wood. She took the stones and made a circle with them and placed the wood inside it while he searched their bags for the flint and tinder.

Winter, Midnight, and Cloud were sitting under the tree that was hanging over them. They huddled together to stay warm, as another cool breeze made Tahlian and Ruanae shiver.

She went over to the supplies and got out the radiations and cloaks. Tahlian started a fire as she got out the small pan that she put the salted meat on. She also dug around and got out two medium-sized fish and one smaller looking fish and placed it in front of Midnight, Winter, and Cloud.

Tahlian was holding the food over the crackling fire when Ruanae came up from behind him and strapped his cloak on for him, and then sat down next to him staring into the fire.

"Thank you." He said flipping the meat over. He looked at her and noticed how the flames reflected off her eyes, almost dancing in them. Realizing what he was doing he quickly focused back to the meat that was starting to sizzle. He announced that it was done and went back to the bags to get the two plates they brought with them. He placed each piece on a separate plate and silently handed it to her. She took it smiling at him and began to eat it.

She thought about the Warrior, how he just stared at his chest not realizing at first the fact that he was going to die. She saw how the sword simply dropped from his hands and he slowly fell to his knees, looked up at the sky, and fell on his face. She must have looked disturbed, since Tahlian spoke,

"Ruanae, are you alright? You look frightened." He said with concern written on his face when she turned to him. The dying flames glow shone on her face as she turned to him.

"The way that Warrior died, Tahlian. He looked as if he was… frightened. The way he faced the sky as he died made me think. Did he have someone that he cared about when he returned at home? Was that the way he was supposed to die, with a dagger of greed sticking out of his chest?" she faced the flames again, "What happens if I loose you on this journey, and its all my fault and you were supposed to do something else in your life?"

He frowned. "If I was not meant to go on this journey, the world would have prevented it. I don't know how, but it would have." She looked back at him, surprised, "And don't worry about me Ruanae. I can take care of both of us if the need arises." And he gave her a convincing smile, then looked into the dying flames and took a bite out of the meat.

"I am being foolish." She admitted, "And by the way," she added taking another bite of meat, "You are a fabulous cook." And he laughed.

When they finished eating they cleaned up the remains, and buried the scraps of food far from the campsite. They yawned and stretched as they settled down onto the blankets that Ruanae had set out. She shivered as yet another gust of wind came their way. She looked nervously at the shivering body of Tahlian.

She got up, dragging the blanket with her and set it down right next to Tahlian. He opened and eye and watched her as she smoothed it out and settled next to him, and caught him looking at her.

"What are you doing?" he whispered

"I'm freezing cold, and this cloak is not enough to keep me warm." She answered, "I'm using Winter and Midnights idea." He stifled a laugh. He got up a bit and took his cloak off and laid it on her. He changed into cat form and he felt much warmer. He laid down next to her, putting his back to her. He felt her pet his back and rest her hand there. He closed his eyes, falling into sleep with the comforting feeling that he would wake up to a friendly face.

* * *

_Tahlian looked nervously into the cave. "Are you sure about this, Ruanae? I mean, we have no idea what could be in here."_

"_Well," Ruanae claimed stepping forward, "We are about to find out."_

_They quietly walked into the dark cave, there Elf eyes allowing them to see deep into the cave but not much deeper since they were to young to have the full advantage of there super eye sight._

_As they walked a bit further into the cave Ruanae suddenly stopped in her tracks. Tahlian slammed right into her. _

"_Why did you stop?" he asked_

"_Shhh!" she said, grabbing his hand, "This cave is not as deep as I thought." _

_He peered into the darkness. His breath got caught in his throat when he saw the biggest elemental monster he ever saw (which wasn't very many). _

"_R-r-r-uanae… I think we should RUN!" he yelled the last word as the elemental charged at them. They yelled, fleeing from the monster while Tahlian dragged Ruanae along. The elemental stopped and banged at the floor, the force throwing them off their feet outside. Tahlian landed near the branch he had grew while Ruanae's head made contact with the branch and fell limply, knocked out. _

"_Ruanae!" he cried out, crawling over to her. He looked up to the elemental that was still charging at them. Fear surged through him. He picked up Ruanae, spoke some words and the branch behind him lifted him and Ruanae in the air and on the top of the cave, safely away from the dumb elemental that went angrily back into the cave._

_Tahlian gasped for air as the energy that was needed for the spell took its toll. He felt extremely weak, and wasn't sure if he could carry Ruanae back. He looked into the sky and saw that it was getting late. They should make their way back. He sighed and with the remaining energy he had he lifted Ruanae into his arms and carried her around the lake and toward Dolonnar.

* * *

_

Ruanae sighed as the cat Tahlian's breath steadied, telling her he was asleep. She closed her eyes and fell into sleep as well.

* * *

_Ruanae knocked on the wooden door. Tahlian answered the door._

"_OK Ruanae, I am NOT going on one of your little adventures right now… ok? My dad just got home and I'm not going to –"_

_Ruanae laughed and cut him off, "I'm not here to ask you to come on another "adventure". I'm here because, if you don't know yet, our parents are planning a trip to either Westfall or Southshore. I need your help to decide where."  
_

"_Oh. Well yea my mother said something about it last night, so sure I'll help." He stepped outside and they began to walk south._

"_Have you ever been to Southshore or Westfall?" Ruanae asked as they past the Dolonnar moonwell. _

"_No, but I hear Westfall looks like something between the morning sun's glow and rotting grass. Southshore I hear is a village that is brushed against the ocean with a dock. Adventures go in and out of it all the time gathering tasks to do for the people there and head into the mountains, which is covered head to bottom with snow and ogres." He said as they made there way over to their favorite spot, the hill that led down to the elemental filled lake that they had been to a couple days before to explore a cave. Ruanae had come out of it unconscious, and sat down. She didn't remeber how she had come out like that, though._

_Ruanae thought as they sat in the silence, looking out to the lake, " Maybe we should go to Southshore, it sounds a lot more interesting."_

"_You just want to go there because you want to sneak out one night, dragging me along, to the mountains. Am I right?"_

"_Awww common Tal, you don't trust me enough to let yourself think I just want to go there because of the view?" she put on a pouting face. _

_He rolled his eyes, "Suuuurrreee…" _

"_So its decided then, we will go to Southshore!" she exclaimed, jumping up and pulling Tahlian up with her, laughing. They made there way back to Dolonnar and told the parents waiting for them their decision.

* * *

_

Ruanae's eyes flickered open to find that she was staring at the back of Tahlian's cat form with her practically hugging him while she was sleeping. She gently lifted herself up, trying not to wake him, a red tint coming on her cheeks. She got up and his cloak fell off her. She began to walk over to the bags when she heard Tahlian's voice.

"I was wondering when you would finally wake up." She looked behind her, startled to find the Elf figure of Tal looking up at the morning sky with his hands behind his head. He looked at her, smiling. Her blush deepened and she turned away to get things ready for breakfast.

"Sorry, I must have been cold during the night." She said when her cheeks were not burning anymore.

He shrugged, "I don't mind." He was a bit surprised at his answer, when he woke up fifteen minutes before her he had been quite surprised to find her snuggled against him, but didn't know what to think about it. Not wanting to wake her, he hadn't moved until she woke up. He shrugged it off and got up to start another fire.

After breakfast, they got back up on their mounts and set off again on the rode.

It was mid-day and the ride had gone smoothly. They could almost see the rebel camp and were glad of it; they needed to get some more supplies even if they did only have little money.

They took a few more steps when suddenly Winter and Midnight stopped in their tracks. Cloud began to growl into the jungle.

"They sense a threat!" Ruanae said, fearfully, "Prepare for an attack!" she said as she drew her bow from her back and knocked an arrow to it. Tahlian had jumped off Midnight and landed in cat form, standing in an attack position, growling also.

An orange cat jumped from the trees, and gave a huge roar. Cloud immediately jumped at it and the two of them were rolling on the ground snapping their jaws at each other. Tahlian, seeing an opening, also jumped into the confusion.

Ruanae lowered her bow slightly, waiting to get a clear shot at it. The tiger clawed Cloud in the shoulder and kicked it away from him. Ruanae saw the opportunity to shoot her arrow where Cloud used to be while the tiger and Tahlian rolled on the ground again. He looked clawed up, and with an arrow sticking out of his thigh he looked pretty damaged but he was still going. It tore at Tahlian's ear while he cut the orange tiger on his back, leaving a horrible gash there that began to bleed.

He jumped off the tiger and changed back into an Elf. Ruanae shot another arrow at the dying tiger, wanting to finish it off as quickly as possible. It died the moment the arrow drove into its skull.

Cloud came tumbling over to Ruanae, and she immediately jumped off Winter and began to work on his wound. Tahlian walked over to where she was, a long cut just above his ear.

"Is he alright?" he asked

She looked up at him, "Yes. Hunters have a special gift to be able to heal their pets if they have a bond running between them. Are you alright should be the question." She said, looking at his cut.

Tahlian muttered some words under his breath and green light came upon his fingers. He touched his cut and it sealed itself. He smiled and announced he was fine. He looked back at the tiger.

"The skins could earn us some money up at the camp." She said, noticing him watching it. She drew out a skinning dagger from her bag and went over and began to carefully remove the fur that was not torn or bloody.

"Would it bother you if we took along some of its meat? They seem to be eyeing it." He was right, Winter, Midnight, and Cloud looked like they wouldn't mind another meal.

She nodded.

They made there way up to the Rebel Camp. They walked up to a tradesman, "How much would you pay for these furs?" Tahlian asked

The man looked at them, "No more than maybe five silver."

They sighed and handed it over. They bought two more blankets remembering how cold it was and some extra food and went out of the camp.

Tahlian looked into his coin bag, "We might have to look for work in the next town."

Ruanae took one of his maps from his bags, "That would be Darkshire. What work would we be able to do there?" She asked as they crossed the bridge, "Killing some of the threatening animals? I hope not."

You could defiantly see the difference as they walked on the path into Duskwood_. This place looks like it is in the shadow of the sun… _Ruanae thought.

As they approached the main road, Ruanae noticed something on the map, "Hey, look! A twilight grove! Maybe there are some elves there!" Tahlian seemed uneasier.

"I don't know, Ruanae… I don't think Night Elves live there, probably something a lot more dangerous."

"Where is that sense of adventure Tahlian?" Ruanae said playfully heading North to the Twilight Grove.

"Ruanae! Wait!" Tahlian yelled as she put Winter into a full run.

They approached a hill that leads upwards. They walked up it, silence surrounding them. The hill had a path on it halfway up. As they reached the entrance, a Night Elf looking entrance pole stood there with lanterns all around.

"See, Tahlian! I knew there was probably Night Elves here!" and she raced Winter down the path, Tahlian following but walking behind.

When he came around the bend, he saw Ruanae sitting on a quite small cliff with her mouth hanging open. Confused, he walked up there as well and saw something that made his mouth drop down to the ground.

"T-t-t-hats a D-d-d-ragon…" Ruanae stammered.

Indeed it was. It looked like a dream wisp but in the shape of an elder dragon with mean looking eyes. It didn't look solid at all, but Ruanae wasn't about to find out if it was.

Then, the dragon snapped up and looked right at them. He gave an enormous yell and spoke words that were not heard by them, blocked by there fear. The dragon began to charge at them.

To afraid to move, Tahlian shook his head and snapped out of it.

"RUANE! RUN!" Tahlian yelled at the top of his lungs. Ruanae snapped out of it. The dragon was halfway to them already. She swerved that growling Winter around and began to charge him out of there.

"GO ALL THE WAY TO TH –" but he got cut off. Ruanae looked behind her and to her horror, he and Midnight had- fallen asleep? What madness was this??

Ruanae yelled for Cloud to run as she jumped off Winter to Tahlian and Midnight. Winter waited for her as she yelled in Midnight's ear. Midnight, being able to resist most of the spell, gave a frightened growl and bolted out of their leaving Tahlian behind.

Ruanae rushed to Tahlian's side.

"Tahlian, TAHLIAN! Are you ok?" She opened one of his eyelids. Fog covered them. A shadow closed around them. Slowly, Ruanae turned her head up to see the dragon raising his claws, preparing to deal the final strike to them.

Ruanae cried out in fear. She attempted to cover Tahlian from the blow by placing herself on top of her, her back to the dragon and she waited to the pain that was sure to follow. It never came. She looked up to see Cloud striking it around its feet and clawing its stomach. The dragon was obviously annoyed and tried to finish the annoyance off, but he was to quick for it.

Ruanae turned away from the daring tiger and dragged Tahlian over to Winter who was waiting for them. He was far to heavy for her to carry, so Winter kneeled down so it would be easier to lift him up. She placed him in the back so he was leaning on her back as she held each of his arms that were wrapped around her stomach.

Ruanae turned to call Cloud back to her just as she saw the dragon cruelly stomp on him. Ruanae gave out a wail of pain. She felt the bonds between her and Cloud be ripped from her. She ordered Winter to run the hell out of there and that's just what Winter did.

Silent tears ran down her cheeks as they ran for their lives to the road where Midnight stood waiting.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about Cloud... ( I want her to get a new and awsome pet besides just a plain old White Tiger. REVIEW! D 


	6. Chapter 6

_As they reached Dolonaar, Ruanae awoke. Her eyes flickered open. Tahlian looked down at her with relief._

"_What's going on?" She said, confused. _

"_You hit your head on the branch, remember?" Tahlian said, letting her down onto the ground where she stood there a little wobbly a moment and then steadied herself, then clutched her head._

"_I don't remember," She said with a frown, she shrugged, "We better get back. They will be expecting us. Oh… and don't mention that we went in the cave, ok?" she said, turning around and put on puppy dog eyes. Darn her! She knew he couldn't say no to those eyes. _

"_Fine…" She giggled and skipped off, waving her hand over her shoulder as she did.

* * *

_

Ruanae gently placed him on the stone road.

"Tahlian?" she whispered, "Tahlian? Are you there? Wake up Tal!" she shook his shoulders. She sighed. They would have to get to the town before dark- even though it was always dark here.

She frowned. She grabbed each of his arms and hauled her onto her back with a grunt. One step and a time with his feet dragging behind her, she made her way over to Midnight. A groan came from behind her.

"Tahlian?" she asked stopping in her tracks. Her knees began to wobble under his weight, which was normal for an Elf, but she wasn't that strong, "Tahlian if that was you you better get off my back before you make me fall!"

"Ruanae?" he mumbled tiredly.

"Yes, you idiot! Wake up!"

He began to blink awake. Just as he was about to speak again Ruanae tumbled over with a thud.

"Ow." She said simply.

"Ruanae, what am I doing on top of you?"

"YOU had fallen asleep! You would have died if I hadn't carried you on Winter all the way out here. I placed you on the ground to wake you up, no avail, I attempt to carry you to Midnight when your STUPID EXTRA WEIGHT makes me FALL! Now get up so I can BREATHE!" He quickly stood up, helping the gasping Ruanae up to.

"You know," Ruanae said looking him in the eye, "the next time I suggest anything stupid like that, how about you stop me??" she said with a playful glare in her eye.

Tahlian opened and closed his mouth, not noticing the sarcasm in her voice.

They reached Darkshire just as night fell.

"Good timing." Ruanae complemented

They rode their mounts in a walk over to the stables and dropped them off. They headed over to one of the Night Watchers.

"Any place that we can do some work for pay?" Tahlian asked

"Depends. The inn is looking to hire a waiter and cook for the night, willing to pay them along with free resting for the night. We also have a guard post that needs watching." They looked at each other.

"Thank you." Ruanae said as they made there way to the inn. They walked right up to the tavern keeper.

"I hear you are looking for a cook and waiter for hire for the night?" Tahlian asked

"Yes. Can either of you cook?"

"Tahlian here can." Ruanae answered before Tahlian got the chance, "And I would be willing to take up the waiter position for the night.

"Wonderful!" the tavern keeper said. He walked into the kitchens and took a chef's hat, a white shirt with sleeves, white baggy pants, and an apron that started at the waist with a little pocket in it, tan shirt with loose sleeves, and black pants. He took them over to them and gave them their clothes, "Just put these on, the two rooms will be for free tonight." And he gave them each a little key, "They are right next to each other. The first two on the right. Come back down in five minutes.

They both headed upstairs and changed in their rooms. As they walked out they looked at each other. Ruanae nearly doubled over with laughter at the sight of Tahlian with a chef's hat on. Tahlian grumbled something she couldn't hear as they walked back down the stairs.

"Marvelous!" the tavern keep said, "You will find all food and things back in the kitchens, just serve out the food to your friend and she will bring it back to the people who ordered. That pocket in there is for any tips you get. Have fun, see me after your shift to get your pay."

Tahlian headed off into the kitchens to prepare as Ruanae leaned against the doorframe leading into the kitchens waiting for people to show up. As they waiting, they talked through the door.

"When I said we might have to do jobs around the world, I had no idea that we would have to work in an inn." Tahlian said as Ruanae heard pots and pans shuffling around. She laughed.

"Well, this should be a memory to last then, eh? I mean, how many times will I see you with that funny hat on?"

"Laugh it up while you still can!" came his yell

She laughed and made her way to a table that a woman that occupied.

"May I help you, Miss?" Ruanae asked

"Oh, I would like a salmon with a glass of Milk." The lady said

"Coming right up."

Ruanae walked back to the kitchens, "I need a cooked salmon with a glass of Milk."

"Alright." She could hear the _thump_ and _sizzle_ of salmon being cooked. She noticed another person and went out to take his order.

"May I help you, Sir?"

And the night continued on. The later it got, the busier they got. Ruanae's tip pocket got heavy as she ran around carrying two trays at a time. Tahlian's clothes and face were soon covered in batter and other food that managed to splash on him from cooking so fast.

More than once Ruanae had to break up a bar fight by sneaking up on the fighting drunk pair and hitting them in a pressure point that knocked them out. The unconscious bodies would be dragged outside, for if you caused trouble you had to find elsewhere to sleep.

By midnight, they were exhausted. Ruanae thanked the last person as she took the tip and wiped the table once with a rag as Tahlian walked out of the kitchens taking off his hat as he made his way over to her.

"Well," Ruanae said with a gentle smile, wiping some of the food off Tahlian's cheek, "That was an adventure all in its own." And Tahlian blushed and wiped his other cheek.

They walked over to the tavern keeper.

"Wow! You guys were amazing out there, any other person would have threw their hat or apron down at my feet and march upstairs from the stress. I would offer you permanent jobs, but unfortunately our main chef and waiter are coming back tomorrow." The man said with a frown. He replaced it with a smile, "Here you go, five gold each. It normally wouldn't be so much but you did an amazing job."

They thanked him and went upstairs. They paused in front of Ruanae's door.

"Here, take the money and put it in your coin bag," Ruanae said, handing over her 5 gold, "And I got… two gold in tips." She said counting and handing them over.

Tahlian nodded and took the money. "Good night, Rua."

"Good night, Tal."

Ruanae walked into her room and changed into her tan cloth sleeveless shirt and tan cloth pants. She climbed into the single bed and pulled the cover to her chin. She blew the candle beside her out and began to think. Soon, sleep came to her.

* * *

_They headed back to Dolonaar. Ruanae waved goodbye to Tahlian as she entered her house. Her mother was reading a book on the couch._

"_Where's dad?" she asked jumping up beside her, looking into the book written in Darnassian. She could fully understand it, since it had been the language she grew up using. They were still teaching her Common. _

"_He went with the others to get more food for the village. The stock of meat was running out and there are far to many night stalkers in the area."_

_She nodded and went up to her room. She lay on the purple sheets, an outline of gold around it. On a small night table next to her bed lay a journal with a quill and ink on top of it. She took it and looked into its contents. She wrote in it a lot, it had been a gift from Tahlian last year on her birthday. She wrote about all their adventures together in it starting with the first one she could remember. _

_She opened to a blank page and dipped the quill into the ink and began to write about the trip to the cave they had taken. She wrote about how they talked near the lake, swam across it and entered it by using their agility and the branch that Tahlian grew. She wrote about how she couldn't remember what had happened after they entered the cave but when she woke up she was in Tal's arms and him saying she hit her head on the branch._

_She had just finished when she heard someone knocking at the door and entering. She heard her father's cheerful voice and she placed the book down and leapt off her bed to meet him and tell her and Talhian's decision. _

"_Dad!" she said happily as she jumped into his arms, he smiled at her and lifted her up to his face and gave her a kiss on her cheek. _

"_How are you, Little One?" he said_

"_I decided to go to Southshore." She answered when he put her down. _

"_Ah, that's good. I had a feeling you would want to go there." He said with a laugh.

* * *

_

Tahlian walked into his bedroom and put on the tan clothes he had been given. He climbed into the sheets of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He began to think about Ruanae, the day, and the trip. Silently he blew the candle out next to him and was overcome by sleep.

* * *

_Tahlian walked back to his house and was greeted by his father. They explained to him that they were going on a vacation to either Westfall or Southshore and that Ruanae's parents would decide. He said a goodnight and fell asleep in his bed, the Midnight Blue blankets covering him. _

_He awoke the next morning to hear a knocking sound on his front door. He yawned and climbed out of his bed. He opened the door to find Ruanae standing there. _

_He began to stammer about how he wasn't going anywhere yet now that his father was back but was cut off by her explaining that she needed help with deciding where to go on the vacation that had been planned. They walked over to their favorite spot, the hill that you could see the lake from south of the moonwell. _

_He told her about each of them, and of course, she wanted to go to Southshore. He rolled his eyes at her and she laughed, pulling him up and they walked back to Dolonnar. _

_The next few days had been spent with the Sinin's, Ruanae's family, making preparations for the trip. _

_They would have to take a boat to Darkshore, and then taking another boat to the wetlands and fly to Southshore since no boat went there. They decided that the children couldn't have a gryphon to themselves so they would have to share one. _

_As the last day rolled around, they began to pack their clothes and other things into the small bag they would each bring with them. Tahlian just finished packing his last shirt in his bag when his mother knocked on his door. She came in and smiled._

"_Ready to go? The mounts are waiting outside. You will be able to get your own since we can see you if you fall off" she laughed. He smiled._

"_I wont fall off." And he took his bag, strapped it on his back and the family walked outside meeting the Sinin family. Ruanae smiled at him._

_Four Snow and Night Sabers were standing near them. Each Mother and Father got on together while Ruanae and Tahlian got his or her own. _

_The parents took the lead while Rua and Tal followed behind them, each talking excitedly as they walked down the rode on the mounts.

* * *

_A/N: Next chapter will be them on their way to Westfall. REVIEW D 

Nara Bluestar: Thank you so much for your review! It helped alot, i'll be sure to keep a watch out for any errors like that. thanks! D


	7. Chapter 7

They walked over the bridge to Westfall. The landscape changed dramatically as Tahlian looked up from the map he was looking at and Ruanae stopped in mid sentence.

"This place looks more dead than alive." Tahlian commented as they followed the path. They passed by an abandoned farm overrun by birds and mechanical robots.

"What are those?" Ruanae asked, squinting at them as she sat up from leaning on Winter's head out of boredom.

"I'm not sure… I haven't been to Westfall for a while. Maybe we should find a local and see if we can help."

They turned right onto the road, heading north. It wasn't long until they reached Sentinel Hill. They paused to buy some more food and supplies. They walked up to the tower and spoke to a man there.

"What has been going on? What are the mechanicals that have overrun this place?" Ruanae asked.

"Harvesters." The man said grimly, "If you go north to Saldean's Farm he will give you a task about them if you wish to help."

"Thank you." Tahlian said

They rode in a run to the Farm, and found a farmer there who was looking out to his overrun field nervously. He spotted them and waved them over.

"Listen, you seem like some able people, could you clear out twenty of these stupid robots? I would be mighty happy and ill give you this set of robes here." And he walked inside and got out a set of green robes.

"Of course we will help." Ruanae said. They got off the Sabers and walked out toward the field. She wielded her bow and knocked an arrow into it. Tahlian melted into a cat and snuck up on the robot that Ruanae was aiming at. He pounced at its head and clawed at its face.

Ruanae shot her arrow, landing it right in the robots back. She could see metal bits and screws falling from the mechanical's face and it ran about, trying to get Tahlian off. She took the next arrow and muttered some words and it became full of arcane energy. When she looked up she saw the mechanical knock Tal off its head using one of its arms.

Tahlian landed with a thud and got right back up, clawing everywhere. Ruanae aimed for the head, and she got a bull's eye. The head got blasted off and landed fifteen feet away right in front of another mechanical.

The headless one fell on the spot while the next charged up.

They continued to destroy the field as the hour passed.18…19… 20. And the field was deserted. They headed back over to the excited farmer.

"Wow! You were amazing, thank you!" he exclaimed to Tahlian, who's arm had a gash on it and Ruanae had a growing bruise on the side of her head where a mechanical snuck behind her and dealt a blow to her head.

He quickly took the set of robes and gave it to them. Ruanae smiled at him and folded them, and placed them in her bag.

"What do you have for sale?" Tahlian asked, noticing a bulging coin bag.

"Ah, I'll be right back." He rushed into the house and brought back a bunch of items. Ruanae noticed some chicken feed.

"Give me some copper, Tahlian." She whispered holding out her hand.

"Why?" he whispered back, shuffling in the coin bag.

"I want to buy some feed." She answered, taking the money from the confused looking Tahlian.

"Chicken feed, please."

"Here you go."

"Thank you." She said, taking the feed. She cautiously walked up to a chicken and placed some feed on the ground near it. The chicken looked at it nervously.

Strangely, Ruanae began to make a chicken sound. After some strange motions with her hands the chicken walked right up to the feed and ate it. She smiled and strapped the rest of the feed onto her belt and stood up.

"What was that about?" Tahlian asked, confused

"I just made a new friend." Ruanae answered walking back over to Winter, the chicken following behind. She picked the chicken up and jumped onto Winter, then placing the chicken in front of her. She flashed Tahlian a smile as he laughed.

They continued on their way north to Stormwind, where they might stay at the inn they had stayed at before. They cross over the stone bridge into Elywnn Forest.

"Ahhh… green grass again!" Ruanae sighed as she plopped onto her back on Winter's back. The small chicken was resting on his head.

Tahlian looked up towards the Westbrook Garrison's Wanted picture. It showed a big Gnoll with mean little eyes.

"Hey," he said stopping Midnight, "We should take a shot at this," he pointed to the sign, "It says bring his paw to the general in Goldshire, we would be passing by there so we could earn a bit of money."

Ruanae sat up and stopped Winter. She turned around to face Tahlian, "Alright. Where does it say he is?"

"South, wandering around the Gnoll camps."

So they steered the mounts south and they passed a tower. They kept their eyes peeled for the camps.

"Hey, look up there." Ruanae said, pointing, "I think that's the camps. We should leave the mounts here so we don't give ourselves away."

They snuck up on the camps and quickly hid behind a log near the border of Westfall. Ruanae slowly knocked an arrow into her bow. She quickly sat up, shot her arrow, and fell back down again as they heard a soft thud of a gnoll dropping dead.

"I saw a large gnoll, probably the one we are looking for she said glancing at Tahlian's bear form that was lying low, "On my count we charge out." And she put her bow on her back and drew out her sword.

"1…2…3…GO!" she whispered

She jumped on the log, jumped off of it, and landed in front of three gnolls. They growled angrily at her and each charged. She easily slashed them all with one deadly swipe, catching them in the stomach. She began to fight her way over to the larger of the gnolls stabbing and slashing the sword with little effort; the gnolls were not skilled enough for her.

Meanwhile Tahlian had charged out to a camp and gave out an enormous roar. The gnolls stood frozen for a moment, scared at the huge bear when they stepped forward stupidly. With one swipe of his claw they were nothing but dead corpses on the grass. He jumped over them and clawed up another gnoll in his way and landed right in front of the gnoll they were hunting. This one seemed to know what he was doing, and dodged Tahlian's claws.

From behind the large gnoll, Ruanae came quietly, snuck up, and stuck her sword through the heart. She carefully slid it out and let the gnoll fall. She threw the sword to the now Elf form of Tahlian, and turned away, not bearing to be able to watch him cut off the claw.

Tahlian winced as the claw came free of its arm. He took some linen out of the gnoll's pocket and wrapped it in it, and hid it from sight in his bag.

They made there was over to Winter and Midnight again. The chicken was still snoozing on Winter's head.

"What are you going to name that chicken, Rua?" Tahlian said, climbing on Midnight.

She thought for a moment as she climbed on Winter. She looked at the little chicken, "Clucky."

Tahlian laughed, "Clucky?"

"Yes, Clucky."

"Alright, Ruanae…"

They rode the rest of the way to Goldshire, and walked up to the General near the blacksmith.

"We have the claw of the gnoll that was giving you some trouble, General." Tahlian said, taking the lien wrapped claw out of the bag and handing it to him. The man took a look at it and nodded, placing it down by his feet.

"Thank you, he was giving us quite some trouble. Here is your reward." And he handed them a small slip.

"What is this?" Ruanae asked, looking at the small note.

"Bring it to the Eastvale Logging Camp, east of here and speak with the tailor there. She will give you a free armor piece."

"Thank you," Tahlian said, grabbing the note away from Ruanae and putting it in his bag, "We will keep it in mind."

As they headed for the road to Stormwind, Ruanae spoke, "Why must you carry everything?"

"Because I am more responsible than you." Tahlian said simply, keeping his eyes on the road.

"You so are not!"

"Am to."

"Am not."

"Am to."

"No you are not…"

"Yes, I am…"

"No…"

"Yes."

"What makes you think that?"

"Remember that one time you lost my money?"

Ruanae grew silent.

"That was ONE time…"

"The time you left your mother's book on the boat?"

"…"

"The time –"

"OK, OK I get it!" Ruanae burst out. Tahlian gave a small laugh.

It grew night as they entered Stormwind. They rode the mounts to the stable master and walked back to the familiar inn.

"Ah, Tahlian, Ruanae!" the innkeeper exclaimed the woman as she rushed up to them, "I didn't expect you to come so soon! How wonderful!"

They both smiled at her and Ruanae spoke, "Is there any rooms available?" she asked kindly.

"Why, of course there is. I assume you would want them next to each other?"

"That would be good." Tahlian answered.

"Of course, well, you can have dinner and ill bring you over when you're finished."

They sat down at a near table and Tahlian looked into his bags, trying to find his map.

"Hey Rua, you wouldn't know where my map went, would you?" he looked up to see Ruanae's innocent looking face.

"Why, I have no idea Tal… did you drop them somewhere?" she said in a voice that Tahlian knew only to well.

He hid a smile as he put an elbow on the table, stuck his hand out to her, put on the most serious face he could muster, and spoke in a deadly voice, "Give it to me, Ruanae."

Intimidated by him, her hand flew into on of her bags and she pulled out the map. He laughed as he took it and Ruanae seemed relived she wasn't in trouble. As he opened the map he noticed she had been drawing alternate routes to the agreed route they would take. They headed deep into dangerous parts of the world.

"Do you WANT us to die on this trip?" Tahlian asked as he looked at her over the top of the map.

"No, I want to EXPLORE on this trip!" Ruanae said, standing her ground.

"Alright Ruanae, I have agreed to some crazy things in the past that I shouldn't probably have, but I am putting my foot down to this."

She frowned. Tahlian always agreed to all her ideas, no matter what. Why was he suddenly so cautious?

"Why are you suddenly being so cautious?" Ruanae said threw thin eyes.

"I don't want me, or more importantly _you _to get hurt!" he said, throwing the map on the table.

"I can look after myself!"

"No, you can't if your going wherever you please not even thinking about what might lay there! You're going to die if you keep this up, Ruanae!"

She stared at him threw squinted eyes.

"I'm going to bed." And she picked up the map, walked over to the innkeeper, said something to her, and they both walked up the stairs.

Tahlian sighed. He never, _never _would yell at Ruanae. That was probably there first argument since when they were still children living at Dolonaar.

"May I help you, sir?" the waiter asked.

"Bring me a large ale. Make it strong."

He sighed as the waiter walked away to the bartender and placed his head in his hands.

* * *

A/N: I didn't like this chapter much. I hated making up that argument but hey, who says everything is smooth sailing? REVIEW!D And sorry there wasn't any flashbacks, I will have the begining of the next one with a flashback from Ruanae's POV 


	8. Chapter 8

Ruanae stormed into the room the uneasy innkeeper showed her, threw her bags on the floor and jumped onto her double bed. She closed her eyes and sleep overcame her.

* * *

_The next day, Ruanae had her bags packed up and was standing outside of the Dawns family house, waiting for them to come out. When they did, she smiled at Tahlian and they went on their way down the rode on their mounts. They whispered excitedly to each other, the last time they had been at Darnassus was quite some time ago._

_As they entered, they looked around as the familiar sights came washing over there eyes. They passed the large tree guardian and up a stone stairs passing the female guards and down some more stairs. They turned right at the bank, located in the bear-shaped tree. (A/N: I think this tree was supposed to be something else but I can't remember. Sorry! Keep reading P) _

_They crossed over the stone bridge and they stopped at the purple portal. _

"_We will meet up across, Little One." Ruanae's mother said, looking behind her as her father lead the Saber into the portal. They disappeared into it and Tahlian's parents did the same. _

_Nervously, they looked at each other and Ruanae lead her mount inside it. She felt magical energy flow through her as the mount continued to walk through it. The magic builded up as they neared the end and finally disappeared all at once as she left it, appearing on a stone path. She could see a house to her right and a weaving bridge to her left leading up to a Flight Master._

_She looked behind her to see Tahlian appearing behind her. She laughed at his shocked face and the group moved for the bridge. As they walked toward the Flight Master, Ruanae spoke, _

"_You know, that IS how portals work, Tal. You go in and appear someplace else." She teased. He grumbled. _

"_Here we are, kids," Tahlian's father said, dismounting and helping his wife off while Ruanae's father did the same. She jumped off and Tahlian did also, "Just meet us near the Flight Master, we have to return these quickly and we will be on our way."_

_The males each took two of the mounts and headed back across the bridge to return them. _

"_I'm so excited!" Ruanae said, failing to calm herself. _

"_Your excited when you wake up in the morning" Tahlian laughed._

"_This is a different excitement, Tal." _

_As they returned Tahlian's mother spoke with the Flight Master, taking her coin purse from her pocket and paying the proper amount of coin to him. He lead five Hippogriffs over and strapped the parents separately. He walked over to the children, who were petting the bird they would be riding on. _

"_Alright, the lady in front and man in the back he said, lifting Ruanae up and then Tahlian since they couldn't climb up. He strapped them in and stepped back. _

"_You folks will be flying across the ocean, so be sure to not drop any belongings and do try not to fall out, otherwise we will have to call in emergency druids to get you. If you do somehow fall, look toward the sky and look for a couple of birds. Do not panic when they dive for you, all they will do is lift you up and give you a ride back to Darkshore…" he walked back over to his position, obviously bored from saying that so many times, he gave out a whistle and Ruanae's mother's bird jumped for the heavens and began to fly across. She could see her waving as they flew, and the man gave another whistle and again until finally he gave the last whistle and their bird jumped, and dove for strangely the sea. They screamed but the bird flew up just in time. _

"_WE HAD A DAREDEVIL BIRD!" Tahlian screamed over the wind and from panic. _

"_I'm sure it won't be the last one either!" Ruanae yelled, laughing.

* * *

_

Ruanae woke up to a knocking at her door. She yawned and got up. When she opened the door, he nose was attacked by the stench of booze. Standing in front of her was a wasted Tahlian.

"Tahlian!" she exclaimed, catching him as he fell into her arms, "Tahlian, are you ok?"

"I am pherfectly ahlsight…" Tahlian spoke, hiccupping afterwards. He dropped an empty glass on the floor as it slipped from his grip, he pushed himself off her, swayed slightly, and spoke again, "I… have chomse tose ell you thas **I" **he pointed to himself, "Am going tos SHTAY here uhil yhou pologize…" and he hiccupped again.

"Tahlian," Ruanae said, "I thought you didn't drink."

He blinked. "Where… am hic am I?" he looked around the room until he spotted her again, "Whys… hell-o pretty…" she raised an eyebrow at him, "How ahbout ou ands me goes to grab an ahle hic "

"Tahlian." He looked at her, still swaying, "Your wasted." He gave her a hurt look, his eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell forward. Ruanae gasped, and caught him in her arms again. A tear rolled down her cheek and into his hair as she realized how stupid she was.

"Oh, Tahlian, I'm so sorry…" she whispered as she dragged him into the darkened hallway and into the next room. She plopped him onto his bed and took the bags off of his shoulder. She threw them on the floor.

Ruanae ran down the stairs into the kitchens where the innkeeper, Sally, was cleaning up.

"Hi, Sally. You wouldn't mind if I barrow a bucket of warm water, a piece of cloth, and anything that would cure a hangover and a headache would you? Tahlian seems to have gotten quite drunk tonight, and I need some things to help him when he wakes up."

"Oh, of course Ruanae." Sally said, worried, "I was quite worried myself about him when he went staggering up those stairs. He was mumbling something about he was mad at you and I was torn between calling a priest in case he hurt you." She said, plopping a bucket of steaming water next to her feet, "The water will cool down to the right temperature during the night" She walked into the basement and came up with a bottle of clear looking liquid, and another bottle of copper looking liquid and two glasses.

"This one," she said holding up the clear one, "Will cure the headache, this one," she held up the copper one, "Will cure the hangover." She said, "I'll help you carry this up."

"Thank you, you have been so kind to us Sally."

"Oh, it's nothing." She said

They walked into Tahlian's room and arranged it all on the table in the corner of the room.

"Would you like me to bring you in a blanket? I assume you would want to stay with him for the night." Ruanae nodded, not taking her eyes off the snoring Tahlian. The first thing she would have to do was apologize to him when he woke up. She gratefully took the blanket she handed her and thanked her.

As Sally left, she closed the door behind her shutting out the light that was coming into the room from the downstairs. Her Night Elf vision made everything clear as she walked over to a chair next to his bed and gently placed the blanket meant for her on him, taking his shoulder guards off his shoulders since it was always a pain to sleep with them on.

She gently placed them near his bags and sat down, her eyes softening when he began to mumble, not sleeping for the rest of the night.

* * *

_They walked into and through Darnassus and went through the portal there. As He and Ruanae mounted the Hippogriff, the Flight Master went over some rules about safety. He tried hard not to feel uncomfortable in his seat, having Ruanae so close to him. He didn't know why he was so embarrassed they were friends, right?_

_He didn't have time to ponder his thoughts for the next moment the bird flew down and nearly dove into the water. _

"_I THINK WE HAVE A DAREDEVIL BIRD!" He yelled over the wind and with fear. _

"_I'm not sure it will be the last one, either!" Ruanae laughed_

_As they soared over the water, he couldn't help but notice how Ruanae's hair blew perfectly with the wind. He shook his head violently, what was he thinking? _

"_Tahlian?" Ruanae repeated over the wind_

"_Huh?" _

"_I said that the water is beautiful!" She yelled, smiling at him from over her shoulder. He smiled back and nodded, looking down at the water. _

_As they landed, he jumped off after Ruanae. They were standing on a raised wooden platform. _

"_Come, children. The boat will not wait forever you know." His mother said, looking behind her as the parents walked from the birds, and into the inn. They rushed after them and they ran passed them up the small staircase and onto the second part of the inn. Where a wall should be, it opened out into the docks. They walked out onto it and headed straight out. They could see three boats, one straight ahead of them that looked strange and foreign, and one on the left and right. _

_As they reached the middle of it, they turned around and waited for the adults to catch up.  
_

"_We go to the left one, the one that heads to the Wetlands." Ruanae's father said, pointing to the one to the left. They walked up to the boat, and he couldn't wait till they would head out.

* * *

_

Tahlian's eyes flickered open. Searing pain entered his head and his hand flew up and clutched it. He tried to sit up but moving seemed to just bring out more pain. What happened?

"Oh! Your awake!" Sally exclaimed, putting another bucket down, "Oh dear, Ruanae will have my head when she finds out you woke up and she wasn't here."

"What are you talking about?" Tahlian gasped.

"You have been out nearly all day, Tahlian. Ruanae stayed with you all night and all up until about a minute ago when I forced her to go downstairs to eat something. I convinced her you wouldn't wake up while she took a couple of minutes to grab some bread. I better get out of here, just don't go to hard on the poor girl," She said rushing to pick up the cold bucket of water, "She has been worried sick about you, you gave her quite a fright when you showed up wasted t her door yesterday… she thinking its all her fault you were in the state you were in. Well, I'll see you later…" and she rushed as fast as she could out the door with the bucket of full water in her arms.

He could here her say hello to someone outside, and soft footsteps leading up to the arrival of Ruanae holding a chunk of bread in her hand. She looked up and saw Tahlian looking at her. She dropped the bread where she stood and rushed over to him.

"Oh Tahlian! I'm so sorry; I shouldn't have acted the way I did yesterday night! I didn't mean for you to get so upset, I was just not used to not having my stupid way! I was so selfish and," but she got cut off by Tahlian holding up his hand in front of her face, she took it and put it back on the bed as she gently rubbed it, not taking her eyes off his.

"It's alright Ruanae, I probably shouldn't have yelled at you either. I care to much about you and I don't think I can loose you again."

She looked at his hand that she was holding, hiding her blush. She stood up and walked over to the two glasses.

"Do you have a headache?" She asked

"Indeed I do." He said

She poured each liquid into each of the two glasses and brought them over.

"Drink this, Sally let me barrow them. I'm not sure how much you drank since I wasn't there, but I don't want a lot give you a lot of it since it may get you sick."

He drank the copper one first and then the clear one. He felt almost completely relived except his vision was still some-what fuzzy.

"Do you feel better? Vision is clear? Head stopped hurting?" Ruanae asked with concern

"My vision is still some what fuzzy, but I'm sure it will be fine by tomorrow." She sighed with relief.

She brought the bucket of water over to his bed and placed the warm cloth on his head.

"Dayja voo much, huh?" Ruanae said with a small laugh.

* * *

A/N: REVIEW guys, REVIEW… I NEED to know how to make this better! D 

Wizg: Thanks so much, I will defiantly try to make the parts more interesting, your review helped a lot D

Hay Lin La: Thanks for your review! I was kinda confused at it at first, but i finally realized it was two people talking XD silly me.


	9. Chapter 9

"Ruanae! Tahlian!" Sally called after them as they began to head out of the inn door, "Wait!"

They turned around to see Sally rushing after them, carrying a small package with her; "It wouldn't be a hassle to bring this package to the innkeeper in Menethil Harbor, would you? Another traveler came by not a moment ago saying that he needed some more supplies. I'll pay you 25 silver for your troubles."

"Why we would be delighted," Ruanae said with a smile as she took the package while Tahlian took the money. As they left, Tahlian spoke.

"Alright we already lost a day, we should begin on a faster pace. We should pass through into Redridge by nightfall, maybe even get to the next town my nightfall."

"Don't forget that we have that armor token thingy." Ruanae said, pulling it out of her bag as they walked up to the stable master and taking Winter and Midnight.

They continued on through the day. As they neared the Eastvale Logging Camp, Ruanae sat up from gently stroking Clucky.

She pointed to the Camp as it came into sight, "There it is, Tal. We should stop off and get an armor piece now incase we need it."

"Don't we already have those robes that the farmer gave us?" he said

"Yes, but that would look so much better on me, no offence… so we should get you a headband there or something."

They walked into the camp and headed over to the tailor's house.

"Hello, Night Elves. Can I help you in any way?" The tailor asked, standing in front of her door.

"Yes, we have a note saying we could have a piece of free armor for my friend here." Ruanae said, holding it up.

"Ah, yes of course. What kind of cloth amour would you like?"

"He needs a headband. And it would be best if it was red, too." Ruanae said with a smile before he could answer.

"Of course." The tailor said, walking inside.

"Why did you do that?" Tahlian hissed, not making eye contact with her.

"Awww common, Tahlian. You will thank me for it later on in your life. Or not. But it would be pretty funny to see you wearing it though!" Ruanae laughed under her breath.

Tahlian's face was expression-less.

"Here it is." The tailor said, walking out with a bright red headband that would fit him perfectly.

"Ah, thank you, Miss." Tahlian said in a fake happy voice.

She waved at them as they turned around and left.

* * *

"Put it on, Tal!" Ruanae said for the millionth time.

"No!" He argued, "I'd look ridiculous!"

"You suck all the fun out of life." She pouted.

"That's me, Mr. Suck-all-the-fun-out-of-everything man."

"That's right."

Silence fell as they neared the border to Redridge.

"Oh, just put the darn thing on!" Ruanae said, jumping from Winter onto Midnight, landing behind Tahlian.

"What are you doing, Ruanae??" Tahlian exclaimed, looking down to see her hand ripping the headband from his bag, "Ruanae –"

But Ruanae had already tied it around his head and put it in a neat knot. She jumped off Midnight and back onto Winter and she looked at her work, and stifled a laugh at his appearance. His disgruntled face adding on with the purple skin made the red headband stick out so much she had to stare at it.

"I dislike you even more now." Tahlian said, taking it off as they crossed into Redridge.

Ruanae finally burst out with her laughter.

* * *

"Well, when's the next town we could stop off at?" Ruanae asked, eyeing the little town.

"In the Burning Steppes, not far in." Tahlian answered, looking at the map.

"Then why bother staying here a night when we can camp out near the border and stock up at the town, fly across it into the Searing Gorge, and head on from there?"

"I suppose it wont kill us," Tahlian said, tucking the map back in his bag as they continued on down the road, passing Lakeshire.

Darkness overcame the two Elves as they continued on. They managed to set up camp and collect firewood with their good night vision. As Tahlian cooked the salted meat over the fire, adding some spices Ruanae took two pieces of fish from the bag of food and plopped them down next to Midnight and Winter. She stared mournfully at the third piece of fish in her hand, meant for Cloud. Instead, she took some chicken feed from the pouch on her belt and put it in front of Clucky who began to peck at it.

Ruanae carefully put the fish back and took the two plates from the bag as well as two water pouches containing water for them. She put the plates and a water pouch in front of Tahlian as sadness overcame her for the first time about Cloud's death.

She hadn't really thought about it, up until now. She could feel half of her empty, meant for her animal companion's bond with her. She stared into the flames and thought about how Cloud was so brave for protecting them like that, and at a horrible cost.

Tahlian looked at Ruanae, and could almost see the white tiger, Cloud, dancing in her eyes along with the flames of the fire. He placed one of the meat chunks on the plate and offered it to her.

"Beginning to miss him?" Tahlian said, full understanding in his gentle smile. She smiled back and accepted the meat. He put the other meat piece on his plate and looked at her, taking a small bite of the seasoned meal. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and rubbed her right shoulder. She settled her head on his as tears began to come.

"Y-you know," she said through a single sob, "He saved my life more than once… he was like my best friend, always they're for me when I needed him. We survived through so much together, and me and his bond felt like the strongest that I ever had with any other animal."

Sadness came into his eyes as he heard her.

"When he died so suddenly, I could actually feel our bond rip from me. It is as half of me is empty now… and it will always be like that until I find another animal that I can say something that that to again."

"It'll be alright, Ruanae, I'm sure you will find another animal." He said, trying to comfort her from a pain he never felt, and probably never would. They stayed like that until Ruanae fell asleep in his arms, forgetting about her dinner.

Tahlian gently took the plate from her hands and placed it on the ground near him. He gently picked her up into his arms, and at his movement Ruanae seemed to try to snuggle deeper into his arms, trying to get comfortable in his arms.

He smiled at her as a single tear rolled down her cheek and placed her on her blanket. He took off his cloak and placed it on her to give her extra warmth. Walking across the fire, he melted into his cat form and fell asleep.

* * *

_Ruanae and Tahlian got off of the bird and met up with their parents. They walked up to their boat after turning left on the dock and stepped on its deck._

"_How long will it take to reach Menethil Harbor, Mom?" Ruanae asked, looking up at her mother. _

"_About three days, Little One." She said, looking down at her. _

"_And where will we be sleeping?" _

_The mother pointed to a door to there left, next to the staircase going up to the steering wheel and to the net that led across to the other side. Ruanae could picture herself sitting on the very top of the boat, looking out into the sea or sitting on the very front, on the long pole-like stick hanging out from the boat's front, the sea spray splashing in her face._

_She nodded and walked in. She frowned as she saw hammocks hanging from the walls. She sighed as she jumped up to the nearest top one. She looked back to the door to see Tahlian standing there, a look of disgust on his face as well. He shrugged and placed his own bag on the hammock underneath her._

_The rest of there family came in, each choosing a hammock to stay in. They filled up almost all of the hammocks except for two, which she expected two other people to be staying in, but after a talk with the captain he said nobody else was supposed to come. _

_As it neared night, the ship took off from the dock. Ruanae watched the docks until they were out of sight, and she walked over and climbed back into her hammock and took out her journal. She began to write in it and about how this should be one of the best vacations she ever took._

_

* * *

_

_ They walked onto the boat and Tahlian looked around the boat. He made a disgusted face when he saw where they would be sleeping, and took the hammock underneath Ruanae. He explored this ship as they waited for it to take off._

_He overheard Ruanae and the Captain talking about any other passengers, but he thankfully said no. He didn't want to be on a boat with some complete strangers just yet. _

_As the boat began to set off, he noticed Ruanae standing on the ledge near the ship's wheel. He decided against going up to her and standing there, ruining the moment for her probably. _

_He walked back to where they would be sleeping and stared through Ruanae's hammock and onto the ceiling. He had a horrible feeling about this vacation, but he didn't dare to share his feelings about it with Ruanae, he was afraid to ruin the fun for her. But still, he didn't like the fact that they were going to Southshore, Westfall might have been a better choice. Why he thought that, he had no idea. _

_As he thought, he didn't notice Ruanae enter the room until he saw her climbing onto the hammock. He blinked in surprise and watched as she pulled her journal out of her bag and began to scribble in it, the smile she always had on when she wrote in it was etched across her face._

_Tahlian yawned and starched as he fell asleep as the gentle rocking of the boat cradled him to sleep.

* * *

_

A/N: God I am so sorry about the delay. I got this new PS3 game and I'm TOTALLY obsessed with it lol. This chapter is real short cuz it is not finished but I want to give you something. Sorry again!

And yea, the quests that I have been adding into this, cut me some slack. I havn't done them for like, ever and I forgot about most of them so sorry if they r a little off or i accidently merged them somehow P


	10. Chapter 10

"GO GO GO!" Ruanae screamed at the top of her lungs. Winter was sprinting as fast as his legs could have taken him as he followed in Midnight's footsteps, a panicked Tahlian on top of him.

Ruanae looked behind her again to see a fire elemental storming up to them, slowly falling behind but it didn't seem it would give up soon.

Tahlian also looked behind him to see the same sight. He made a nervous sound and turned back to the road again. He could see a turn that would bring them into Morgan's Vigil.

"Almost there!" He yelled back at her.

Ruanae watched as the elemental that had chased them all the way from the stupid stone bridge they had crossed began to back away from the town they were coming up to. It turned around and made it's way back to ambush another un-suspecting traveler.

She sighed with relieve. Fear slowly left her and pain slowly came back to her. She looked down at her right arm to see a burned spot driven right through the leather. A bruise lay where the rock had nearly knocked her off Winter.

She held back a gasp of pain as she looked at Tahlian who looked a bit shaken. He looked back at her clutching her arm and a look of concern washed over his face.

Tahlian stopped his mount and walked up to Ruanae. He helped her off Winter and removed her hand from the bruise. He flinched as he saw the bruise. It started to turn a black color along with some blue.

"Ouch." Ruanae said as he gently touched it and wove healing into it. The skin turned back to it's purple color and she sighed with relief.

They walked the mounts into the town and asked the guard where the stables and flight master were. They stabled the mounts, asking for them to be teleported to the Searing Gorge town, Thorium Point.

Each one jumped on a gryphon and they took off, laughing as the birds swooped around and glided.

Tahlian had never felt so alive, for the first time since… well, a long time. His smile was nearly glowing as he turned to see Ruanae laughing and staring ahead of her, her smile ear to ear.

"This is so much better than running for our lives!" Ruanae yelled over the wind, looking down to see creatures of the Searing Gorge look up at them disappointed at prey flying right over them.

It didn't take far to long to get to the Loch Modan town, Thelsamar, and land. They each dismounted and walked over to the stable master to find both Midnight and Winter waiting there, munching on some meat they had provided.

They got some more food and were off. It took most of the day to enter into the Wetlands, and as they left the tunnel Ruanae stretched thankfully.

"Thank goodness, I thought those tunnels would never end, you know?" she said

"Yea." Tahlian answered. It was nearing night, "You want to camp out for the night?" he said, looking at the rapidly darkening sky.

"Probably. Lets go under that tree" she said, pointing at a tree that was on the left side of the path, sitting on a small hill that overlooked one of the many parts of a channel of water thought the entire area. The place was littered with crocodiles.

"We should be more cautious with all these animals wandering about, and the orcs that are said to habit around. I'll take the first watch when you rest." Tahlian said, following Ruanae's example of jumping off the mount and starting to unpack his bedroll and food.

"Oh, stop being a 'man'. I'll take the first watch, I'm not that tired." Ruanae said, rolling her eyes as she spread the bedroll out.

Tahlian laughed as he began to search for stones in the surrounding area to start a fire.

"I don't see any sticks around." Ruanae said nervously. She looked at the tree, "I really don't want to even take a chop out of any tree, especially the one that is sheltering us for the night."

"Find another one." Tahlian said simply.

Ruanae set out holding the small axe in search for another tree. She didn't have to go far. She squared her feet and slammed the axe into the rough bark.

"Sorry tree!" she whispered as she left, her arms full of firewood.

She hurried back and dropped the wood next to Tahlian who was taking out the dried up meat.

Soon, a roaring fire and the smell of a cooking meal reached Tahlian's senses. He took another bite out of the apple he was munching on, and turned the meat over.

They ate in silence, listening to the soft wind and the munching of Midnight and Winter eagerly snapping at the fish. As the wind blew across Ruanae's face, she turned to look at Tahlian. His long hair tied up in a ponytail blew as the wind reached it. She didn't notice how long she was looking at him, a small smile had been on her lips but the next thing she knew he looked at her, his food done.

"Finished?" He said, not noticing the look.

"Oh, right. Yea." She said, shaking her head.

She fell asleep, watching the breaths of Tahlian grow steady from across the banked fire pit.

* * *

_Ruanae fell asleep, her journal cradled in her arms. She awoke to find a tray of food sitting on a nearby table and the room deserted. She yawned and placed the journal, quill, and ink back into her bag and jumped up off the hammock and landed gracefully on the floor. _

_She took the bread on the tray and munched on it as she left onto the deck of the boat. Tahlian was there, looking onto the seemingly endless sea of blue. _

_She was about to place a hand on his shoulder, but he jumped off of the boat and onto the hanging wood below. _

"_Tahlian!" she called down to him. Startled, he looked up. Relief came over him as he saw it was just her, "What are you doing?" _

"_I'm going swimming!" he called back with a laugh. Before she could ask him why he jumped higher than a human could dream of and at the perk of his jump, he transformed into a beautiful seal. The seal dove into the water barely making a splash. _

_The seal's head bobbed out of the water and began to race the boat, which was slightly faster than him, so he couldn't get ahead of it. Ruanae laughed at his failing attempts and she jumped down to, the bread now in her stomach. _

_She landed again gracefully on the wooden part hanging over the water. She layed down and watched the seal, Tahlian, dive in and out of the water laughing and waving at him. _

"_Ruanae?" a voice called from above her. She froze in mid-laugh and looked up to see Tahlian's father looking down at her with a emotionless face. He was good at that, but whenever he was like that you knew he didn't know how to feel about something, as if torn between laughing or yelling, "Ruanae, what are you doing down there? Wait a moment, is that Tahlian out there?! TAHLIAN!!!" he yelled out, cupping his hands over his mouth, "TAHLIAN! Get back on this boat, Tahlian!" _

_Tahlian froze in his jump and landed with a flop in the water. Slowly, he swam over to the edge and went deep in the water. A moment later he came jumping out of the water, transforming and doing a back flip at the same time. He had an unusually good agility at such a young age. _

_Ruanae helped him steady himself by grabbed his hand just as he was about to slip. They managed to climb back up to confront the rest of their parents who had heard him yelling. _

"_Y-yes?" they both said at the same time.

* * *

_

Tahlian's breath slowly steadied, him unable to get the picture of Ruanae staring at him like that with a smile he never saw on her face before. His eyes began to droop and was pulled into sleep.

* * *

_Tahlian woke up to stare at Ruanae's back. He slowly got up. The parents were gone to who knows where, probably talking to the captain. He walked out and saw his mother walk up to his with a tray of food. _

"_Here you go, Tahlian. Breakfast." She said with a smile and handed the wooden tray to him, "Mind you, that's both of yours so don't eat all of it." She walked away above the deck. _

_He walked back in and took one of the two bread pieces there and left the rest for Ruanae. He walked up to the deck and leaned out, looking over the edge onto the ocean's horizon. He didn't know how long he was there. He suddenly got a thought of going for a swim. He had no idea why, it just seemed like a good idea. He jumped up and landed on a wooden platform just above the water. He heard a call from behind him, and he turned around and looked up to be confronted with Ruanae. _

_After small talk, he dove in. It felt so good so feel the cool water on his skin, or should he say his seal's skin. He dove above the water and heard Ruanae laugh. He turned to her and put on the biggest seal smile he could and she laughed harder and waved. He dove in and out, enjoying the sound of her laugh. _

_Just as he doe up again he heard her laugh cut short. Wondering why, he suddenly heard his father yelling at him. He looked up and saw his father looking angry. He plopped back into the water without realizing it._

_Reluctantly, he swam up to the boat and went deep under. He enjoyed the water while it lasted, and swam up as fast as he could. _

_He jumped just as he surfaced, and began to morph into his elf form. He back flipped in the air and landed unsteadily on the wood. Ruanae helped him up and they climbed up to meet the angry parents who had come running. _

_They coward under the piercing glare of them._

"_Y-yes?" they both stammered._

"_WHAT exactly where you two thinking? What if a title wave came suddenly?? You both would have gone flying!" Ruanae's mother burst out first, followed by his own mother and then both of there fathers. They no longer could understand a word they were saying, but with one look at each other they silently agreed they were probably talking nonsense._

"_Well?" his father said. You could almost SEE the steam coming from his ears. _

"_Uhhhhhhh…" they both said, "Sorry." _

_The parents gave them one more glare and set off, murmuring to each other about youth these days.

* * *

_"Wake up, lazy bum!" Ruanae yelled as she threw Tahlian's bag onto his face. He grunted as the bag made contact with his nose. 

"Ouch." Came a muffled voice from underneath the bag. She laughed.

"Common, we have to get through the Wetlands today!" Ruanae said cheerfully.

And they did. They rode through the wetlands with little problems except the occasional suicidal crocodile. They looked out onto the stone bridge that connected them to the Arathi Highlands.

* * *

A/N: WOW I just got this sudden burst of inspiration. I know that this story is boring but I PROMISE the next chapter is going to be rushing it along a bit, but don't worry it will be worth it. 


	11. Chapter 11

Images flash before the dead man's eyes.

_Walking down the crumbled stone steps, away from the Undercity. He looks back and sighs as he follows his rotting companions. _

The dead man looks down to his hands, the flesh gone from his fingers all left but bone.

_Slaying innocents, capturing harmless animals for slaughter._

He looks up and staring at the mirror across the wall from him. A head of rotting flesh, and blood looks back at him. His brown hair untidy, dirt and dust throughout it. His eyes looked hopeless, a lost cause.

_He looks up at a newly purchased horse. It is but a skeleton. His jumped upon it and the horse stirs to life, willing to serve it's new master. He beckons it forward and he rides away, joining the smirking female and male. _

He blinks. He wonders. Who was he? What did he do to deserve this?

_They storm up to Goldshire. Small children flee from him, woman scream at their hideousness and hide in the inn, beckoning the loved ones with them. Guards yell and charge. The three slowly dismount and draw their blades with equal slowness, setting the mood for blood and slaughter. _

What terror has he not committed? What age has he not slayed? What Undead did not know his name for the pure reason of what he has done with his sword? He looks at the blade that leans against the wall in a corner. It is stained red of the blood. Emeralds line the handle, while the handle is black.

_He looks around at the deserted town and sighs at the fallen men, woman, and children as there bodies surround him. He walks slowly around at what he has done. He kneels down and moves a small girl off of her front. Fear is etched into her face forever, her eyes wide. She clutches a small doll in her arms, holding it to her chest. He closes her eyes and rests her back down._

Could he have stopped himself from what people expect him to do? Why did he bother to get up in the morning when he knew he would just be claiming more lives, more people who fear him and had nothing to do with him?

_He looks at the road that leads to Southshore, the last target of the day. The three of them leave the mounts there. They had to have a sneak attack. __They snuck up and charged, giving out loud war cries to the un-expecting town. _

He looked away from the sword and turned around from his inn room. He layed on the bed and let the images come.

His sword went right through the male guard and he searched for another victim. Screams were everywhere, and yells were heard. He saw his female friend take two lives at once, two Night Elf's holding hands that were calling out a name.

_Tahlian. Whatever that meant. _

_He saw his other friend take the life of another Elf, also female, who was crying over another male elf. _

_From a distance, he could hear a strangled cry and two small Night Elfs were staring right at the two Undead, eyes wide. The female little elf had tried to run forward, but the male one held her back. She kneeled down and began to wail. _

_He kneeled down to her, tears flowing down his own cheeks. He looked up at him and glared a glare that was so full of hatred he was amazed that someone so young could produce such a glare. _

_Suddenly, his male Undead friend had laughed at the two weeping elf's. He ran up to them and booted the male off of the female. He had no idea why, but rage filled him as he saw the young boy fly five feet away and land with a thud. _

_The young girl screamed and clawed at his friend's feet. He merely laughed at her and shoved her aside, and turned toward him. _

"_Finish the girl off, we will meet you back in five minutes." He said in orcish. _

_He walked up to the crying elf and raised his sword, wanting to give her a final blow but she just looked up at him, eyes wide with fear. She wails louder and yelled that same word again, Tahlian. He wondered what that meant in Darnaissian or Common. He can't bring himself to murder such a little elf. Her tears came harder as she looked around and saw nobody around her, and looked back up at him with tearful eyes, a lost light in her eyes that said: Just kill me, please. Get it over with if I must die. _

_He lifted his sword away and the elf stopped crying. She gave him a sniff and got up and charged away into the wilderness. _

The Undead placed his hands over his face as a knock came from his door.

"Come in.," he said in a rusty voice.

The door opened and in came two other Undead, one female and the other male. They wore brilliant amour crafted from the finest smiths.

"Coming on our next killing spree, Giliath?" the female asked with a smirk.

"No. I'm not feeling to well today Jen." Giliath replied.

She fake gasped, "What?? The almighty, infamous Giliath is not feeling well enough to go on a killing spree?"

"Common, dude, don't ruin the reputation you earned…" the Undead man, Dalen, said with a equally rusty voice, "You worked far to hard to not go on."

Giliath sighed. Leave it up to those two to make him feel horrible. He slowly got up and replaced his sword on his belt and left his room, following the others.

They traveled away from the Undercity, through the Western Plaguelands, and across the Alterac Mountains. Going down into the Hillsbrad Foothills, he felt a dread coming through him. The same flashes of images of the small Night Elf girl and boy came to him again. This was where Southshore was.

* * *

Tahlian and Ruanae looked at the path uneasily. Each one still had nightmares about this place, the one place they both feared the most. Southshore, where everything bad had ever happened to them. Where the end of their normal lives, and the start of survival had taken place. They each closed their eyes and allowed a single memory take place.

The boat finally landed and they walked onto the Southshore dock. Ruanae and Tahlian both stared in wonder at the place; it was such a busy little town. Adventures walked among the paved paths looking for small jobs, or quests as they put it.

"_Go and put your things in your room, Ruanae, Tahlian." Ruanae's mother said as the parents went off to speak with townsfolk. They both walked cheerfully into the inn and spoke with the innkeeper, who led them to the rooms. _

"_This is going to be-" but Ruanae was cut off by a ear-splitting scream. _

_Both their eyes widened. Ruanae stood frozen. Tahlian grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the door into the deserted inn. He rushed out the door and saw a terrifying scene play out before them. Guards, men and woman's corpses lay across the town. They rushed out over the bodies and saw three Undead slaying people mercilessly. _

_They didn't know why but they froze when they saw them. Ruanae stared in one direction while Tahlian in another. Two of the Undead had killed their parents right before their eyes. Tears sprung into their eyes. _

"_NO! MOM! DAD!" Ruanae screamed and tried to lung forward. Tahlian had quickly grabbed her, tears in his own eyes, they both thinking the same thing. Kill the Undead. _

_He began to whisper to her, he knelt her down and was about to say something when he was kicked into the air with a cruel, evil laugh. He landed with a thud feet away. _

_Ruanae cried as she felt Tahlian be lifted off her. She didn't see him but heard him land with a thud. She attacked the Undead's shines but he only laughed at her and kicked her aside to. _

_Tahlian quickly saw this and jumped up. He melted into a cat and began to run away… he didn't know why, he felt so stupid and so cowardly but his animal instincts were kicking in, he couldn't stop himself. _

_Ruanae didn't see him. She was to busy crying. She looked up to see another Undead pointing a sword at her, a look of uneasiness in his eyes. She burst out into more tears and waited for the blow, but it never came. She watched as he pulled the blade away. She took the opportunity and sprawled up and ran for her life, feeling stupid and cowardly also, fearing for her own life. She and Tahlian both promised in their minds, as they both ran, they would never run away again from each other if they ever saw each other again. _

They opened their eyes at the same time and looked at each other with sad eyes, both silently agreeing to what they had promised themselves before.

"You wanna go in?" Tahlian asked in a gentle voice.

She nodded, "We need more supplies."

They slowly entered the small town. Ruanae looked around uneasily. She could almost smell the smell of spilled blood. Little did she know, something much worse would happen.

She heard a twig break behind her; her head whizzed around to see nothing. Her eyes narrowed and she turned back away, ignoring the odd mood in the air. Tahlian sensed it to. They exchanged a look and nodded. Their top guard was on now. Their back's were stiff, faces set in glares that were not meant to anybody, more to themselves. Their eyes darted at anything that moved.

Tahlian's eyes were flying everywhere. Then, he couldn't see anything at all. He tried to blink but he couldn't he couldn't move, he could barely breath. He could hear Ruanae's scream as a distant one, though. He felt the urge to run up to her and hug her and tell her everything was ok. He suddenly heard a more of a painful grunt and then nothing at all.

* * *

A/N WOO! Another chap up! Left it on a cliff, and yea, I have actually been planning this for awhile so I sped things up a bit. Hehe. I hope you liked it D REVIEW! -.- 


	12. Chapter 12

Tahlian's eyes flickered open. Nothing but darkness reached his eyes at first. He blinked rapidly and slowly a dimly lit room filled his eyes. He was on the ground. It felt cold and hard. He looked around to see bars on the front of the cell. He looked down and saw a limp figure hear him.

Visions flashed through his mind. Sharp pain entered his head where he had been knocked unconscious. He remembered Ruanae's screams, and he quickly crawled over to her, ignoring his pounding head.

"Ruanae…" he whispered. He turned her over to see a trickle of blood coming from the side of her head. She looked as if she was sleeping, but she suddenly gasped and moaned, but returned to her previous state. Tears sprang into his eyes.

"Ruanae, can you hear me?" he whispered again, cradling her head in his lap. She gasped out in pain and a single tear escaped her eyes, "Ruanae?" concern came into his face.

Ruanae's eyes ripped open. Her eyes were misted over. They were big and wide. Fear was etched into them. Her hand whizzed up to Tahlian's face and she touched his cheek softly. Her eyes drooped again and he grabbed her hand and held it to his lips and gently kissed it as it began to go limp.

Anger was boiling inside him. She was under an enchantment, obviously. She was in a different zone of time, and space, and being tortured for some reason. Ruanae gave out a loud yell and she withdrew her hand and curdled into a ball.

* * *

**Ruanae whizzed behind her and saw an Undead, strangely familiar, knocked Tahlian out with the hilt of his sword. He looked at her and gave a yell in orcish, and she gave a yell of fright. Suddenly, two other Undead came up from behind her. She looked frightened at them. **

**They woman grinned evilly at her and raised a hand. She muttered some words and Ruanae screamed in pain as her soul felt like it was being sucked out of her. She felt completely zoned out, and she was suddenly looked at herself from a third person perspective.**

**Ruanae frowned as she saw herself pass out. She saw Tahlian fall off Midnight, and both of the mounts panicked and bolted, even Winter. Slowly, her vision got darker and darker. The last thing she saw was the Warlock looking right at her ghost thing and the other two lift their bodies onto their backs, one smirking and the other one looking haunted. **

**Slowly, her vision came back. She opened her eyes to find herself in nothing. She was nothing, or was she something? She had no idea. Was she solid, mist, was she an elf or was she a human? What was she sitting on, if she was sitting on anything at all? **_**Ok**_**, she thought to herself, **_**one thing at a time. **_**She wanted to know where she was. Suddenly a light came on. It shined right over her, and she appeared to be laying on a gray surface. It didn't feel cold or warm, hard or soft. It was just there. **

**She slowly picked her head off the ground, if she could call it that. She looked up at the light, or was it sunshine? All she knew that it was something that lit up about a foot away from her. **

**She heard footsteps. Or were they footsteps? She looked toward the noise to see some Undead walking toward her. It looked like a female, dead looking. **_**No kidding, its an Undead..**_

"**Hello." The woman said, staring at her. When she said nothing she smiled, "How are you feeling?"**

"**Like crap." Ruanae said, finding her voice all of a sudden. **

"**That's good." She said with a smirk. She raised her hand and Ruanae was filled with pain, like thousands of knives going through her at once. She screamed with all she had in her.**

"**What the hell was that for??" she yelled as the pain subsided. **

"**Oh, it's quite simple. I'm not supposed to kill you under Giliath's orders. I'm not sure what he sees in you two, but it is stopping him from killing you. So, I'm doing the next best thing." She raised her hand again and this time it felt like she was drowning in a lake of fire. **

**She screamed again. She looked around desperately for an exit of some kind. Suddenly, a pathway cleared and she saw a door. Death would have been better than this, but a door was just as good. She got up clumsily and ran to the door, which was more like a fast walk from all the pain she was in. **

**The Undead laughed at her and followed behind her. Ruanae ripped the door open and jumped out. She was in a cell. She looked behind her to see the Undead approaching the door. She slowly turned back into the cell to see Tahlian holding her in his lap, a few tears coming from his eyes and whispering to her. She desperately wanted to tell him she was all right, she was here with him, to touch his cheek and wipe the tears away… **

**And she saw herself rip her eyes open. They were misted over, pain in them. She thrust her hand forward and gently placed it on his cheek. Her eyes then began to droop. Just as her hand was about to fall limp, he had grabbed it and gently kissed it, whispering to her again.

* * *

**

She felt more pain and she gasped as it hit her. The Undead walked up to her and grabbed her shoulder. She thrust her around and pushed her through the door. As she was thrust back into the middle of the room, she curdled into a ball and waited for the pain that was sure to follow.

Tahlian could not stand to watch Ruanae in so much pain. Who would do such a thing? He made a silent promise to himself that he would let the person torturing her die a slow, painful death and he would watch every second of it.

He slowly picked up her limp weeping body and laid it on the single, moldy blanket they had. He finally realized they had both been stripped of their amour, left with the cloth pants and shirt underneath. He looked at Ruanae again as she gave a more horrible painful yell, which lasted a few moments.

Wanting to comfort her in any way he could, he gathered her small, frail body into his arms and hugged her until the weeping stopped, which took hours. He didn't move a muscle. All he did was sit there and cradle the tormented elf, his friend.

He looked down at her, wincing as his neck muscles felt like they were being ripped apart slowly in argument of movement. More pain as he moved his arm to brush some dirt filled hair out of her hair.

_The Seed. _

OF COURSE. Why hadn't he thought about that around two hours ago?? He laid her back on the blanket and pushed it into the darkness of the corner. He searched his pockets quickly and relief settled over him as he found the small lump.

He pulled it out and looked closely to it. Would it work? The life inside this small seed actually replace the soul that has been torn out of her at the moment, maybe even restoring it? It was meant for the dead. Druids would take the seeds from trees and use them on the dead, using the life inside the seed and put it in the person.

Nervously, he held his hand out to the small seed. He muttered under his breath and the seed began to glow. He smiled and pulled the life from it. He held his hand in front of him, a small glow coming from them. He touched the center of Ruanae's forehead. The light slowly left his hand and entered her. Nothing happened, but she stopped crying and fell silent.

Minutes passed, and still nothing happened. He prayed that the like of the tree was searching for her soul, and take it back. Suddenly, and very slowly, her hair color began to change. So did the marks on her face. They slowly became a green the color of an oak's leaves. He could have laughed if he wasn't busy trying not to sob in happiness. Her hair and marking color slowly changed back to the blue he realized he loved so much.

Ruanae's eyes flickered open. He finally couldn't help himself, he let the sob out and grabbed Ruanae into his arms, squeezing her until she wasgasping for air.

"T-tahlian! You are killing me!" Ruanae gasped

"Ruanae…" he said with so much emotion Ruanae put on the more relieved face anybody had seen on her.

"Tahlian," she said hugging him back now, "It was horrible… an Undead had, like, torn my from myself and starting torturing me and suddenly I find this door and I see you weeping over me and then she bring me back and does it again and then-"

"Ruanae, it's ok… your back with me." He said with a relieved laugh.

"I thought it would never end, the Undead seemed to enjoy it more and more and then suddenly, I see from the corner of my eye and grass it beginning to grow in a path to me. Then this tree grows up from under me and it just keeps growing and I just hang onto it's top branch and then I see this light above me and I blink and here I am!" she said with a confused voice, breaking the hug and staring at him a confused expression.

"The seed." He said quietly

"The seed?"

"Remember that seed I bought at Stormwind?" he asked

"Yea. Wait a minute, your not telling me that was what saved me?"

He nodded. She stared at him with awe.

"Ruanae, dear god, I thought I lost you for a moment." Tahlian laughed, looking into her eyes never wanting to forget the sight. He never noticed how they just seemed to glow so bright, brighter than any other elves he had ever seen.

Ruanae smiled a huge smile. She loved Tahlian's laugh. It was deep and loving, and had a teasing sense in it. She sighed.

"I'm so tired…" she said, sighing again. She felt herself grow suddenly tired. She felt her head slip onto Tahlian's strong chest. She gripped his wrist tightly, and fell asleep with a feeling that she was safe. For now, at least.

A surge of panic washed over Tahlian at first when he saw her literally pass out in front of him but smiled as he felt her steady breaths come out. He placed her on the mat again and unwrapped her hand from his wrist. He again brushed hair from her eyes and looked at her for a moment before standing up.

Tahlian walked over to the cell bars and gripped them with both hands. He was staring into a hallway that looked like the path to hell. Torches lined the wall that led down to a wooden door that was halfway off its hinges. It smelled of death in here, with all the most and rust. He could of sworn he saw a blood stain on the ground, not far from them. He sighed, no windows. No escape he could see, and no lock that he could pick. It probably opened by magic. His brow furrowed as he heard footsteps coming.

Panicking, He rushed over to Ruanae in the darkness and held his breath, hoping whoever it was would just pass by.

Unfortunately, the Undead that came stopped right at their cage. It looked like a female Warlock. She peered into the darkness and smirked as she saw the druid and the hunter.

She waved her hands in the air and two loaves of bread and a pitcher of water appeared not far from him. He didn't realize how hungry he was, however he made no move to take it, keeping his eyes fixed on the Undead.

She however, was not looking at him but Ruanae. He realized this must be the person who was torturing her. Anger quickly came and before he knew it he was at the bars yelling himself hoarse. The Warlock grinned at him and with a wave of her hand he cringed as a terrible headache came and left as fast as it had come, but caused him to grab his head in pain anyway.

The Undead laughed at him, said a few words he did not understand and she pointed to Ruanae. Slowly, she turned around and left. By now, Ruanae had woken up at the noise and she walked over to Tahlian and put a hand on his shoulder.

Tahlian, surprised at her touch, turned his head to her and saw her concerned expression. He gave her an unconvincing smile.

"Tahlian, we are going to break out of here and make it through this, do you understand me?" Ruanae said with a dead serious voice, "Even if we have to wait a month or our opportunity, we are going to get out of here."

* * *

A/N: hehe I am starting to have them realize they actually like each other, you know? I'm sure people saw it coming, I mean, the title kinda gives it away lol.

THANK YOU TO THE REVIEWERS D And yea, i would like some more if i can get them P plz. D


	13. Chapter 13

"Shut up!" Tahlian whispered.

"Sorry!" Ruanae whispered back. Tahlian went back to his pose on the ground. He was kneeling in a position that would make you think he was ready to sprint.

They had fully examined the room they were in while they were let out once a day. There were conveniently two medium sized crates that had a single hole near the top of it right outside of the weak point in the cell wall. The door was just a few meters ahead of them, so when the guards would leave they would make their escape.

Tahlian took a deep breath. He was risking an injury for doing this, but if it meant getting out of here before the guards were bored with them and then murdered in a slow and painful fashion, then their corpses would be eaten away, this was WAY better.

Tahlian charged at the wall, and when elf hit wall, the elf won. A loud BOOM went off in the room and no doubt the guards had heard it.

When the dust cleared Ruanae saw Tahlian hunched over, clutching his right arm.

"Tahlian, are you ok?" she asked, running up to him when she crawled through the hole.

"The crates!" he whispered, ignoring the question. Ruanae nodded and they both just managed to station themselves under each of the crates just as around five Undead guards came in.

They began to yell at each other, occasionally waving a hand to the hole of slapping one of them in the back of the head.

After a few minutes of arguing, they ran out. Ruanae and Tahlian both lifted the crates an inch and peaked out from under it. They caught each other's eye and they shared a look. Each on dropped the crate at the same time and they used the tiny hole in the crate to move themselves to the door.

The guards had left it open, so that made it easier on them. The hard part? Finding a way around the Undercity, which they had no idea how to do, and avoiding any dead life forms.

* * *

Ruanae. Was. Pissed.

It had taken them a good hour or so to find yet ANOTHER dead end…

Where the heck where they?

Wait; didn't they just PASS that barrel? 10 minutes ago?

ARRGHHH!

They came up to a window. She could see the outside world. Below it she new was green goo just waiting for someone to jump in it.

She always wanted to do that. She found that out thirty minutes ago.

Having enough of this, she jumped out of the crate and jumped on the windowsill. She took a deep breath and jumped swan style. About halfway down, she formed it into a perfect dive and dove straight down into the green goo.

Her sense went crazy. She could only see green; her ears and nose were clogged with goo. She could feel the mush pressing against her body, sucking all the breath out of her.

Her mind finally clicked into action and her feet began to kick. Hard. So hard that if some unfortunate person happened to be beneath her foot, they might have been knocked unconscious.

Thankfully that didn't happen.

As she surfaced she took deep breaths of fresh air (as fresh as the rotting air of the Undercity can get). She wiped her face clean of goo and looked around. Everything looked dead. _No kidding!_

She looked up to see an uneasy Tahlian looking down at the goo. As he saw her surface he gave out a relived breath. She watched him dive in to, and he surfaced a couple moments later, looking like a monster.

"AHHHH!" Ruanae screamed, swimming backwards away from him. He gave her a huge smile.

"RAWR!" He yelled, throwing his hands above his head. He slowly made his way over to Ruanae, her screaming all the while. Her feet finally found the edge of the ground and she quickly scrambled onto the solid ground.

Tahlian wiped his eyes of goo and he saw Ruanae looking fearful at him. She smiled under the layer of goo; she probably thought he was one of the goo globs that wandered around.

He took this to his advantage. He knelt down and hunched his back to make him look like a big glob of the green goo. And began to groan and he made his way to her. She coward against a dead tree, screaming still.

"TAHLIAN!" she yelled, not realizing that he was right in front of her, "TAHLIAN!!!"

With the racket she was making, he was surprised no guards had heard her. Playtime was over, so he stood up and wiped his face clean.

"Yes?" he said innocently.

She stared at him wide eyed. After a moment of realization she dropped the dumbstruck look and glared at him. She turned away and began to wipe the goo of herself.

"Awww, Ruanae, you know I was just kidding!" Tahlian begged, wiping some goo off his arms and chest.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH!!!" Ruanae yelled at him, when she opened her mouth to yell again she found it covered up Tahlian's hand.

It was his turn to star wide eyed at her. He placed a finger to his lips and he stood frozen, as if listening to something. His eyes got wider and he instinctively grabbed Ruanae and held her in his arms. He muttered a spell very fast and roots immediately shot them up into the highest branch of the tree they were standing next to.

Just as the roots disappeared a group of three Undead guards came around the corner. They spoke a few words, and they split up.

Tahlian was still holding Ruanae in his arms when they left. They both looked at one another, wide eyed.

"They know that we are here!" Ruanae whispered, Tahlian barely catching onto the words. He nodded slowly. They were to frightened to realize that they were clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it.

After a bit they slowly relaxed, a guard was not going to be coming by for awhile. That's when they each noticed how they were positioned.

Ruanae was holding onto Tahlian's neck, and sitting on his knee. Tahlian was kneeling on the small branch, holding Ruanae's waist to prevent her from falling off, and the other was placed on the tree branch to keep himself balanced.

They both blushed deeply.

"I think we can get down now and make a run for it." Tahlian said, not making eye contact with her, staring at the ground intently, making it seem that he was looking for guards.

Ruanae nodded. Tahlian jumped down, still holding Ruanae, to the next branch. He jumped down to another and then one more, then the ground.

He quickly placed Ruanae on her feet and they both sprinted side by side away from the Undercity.

* * *

A/N wow. I am SO stupid… I had this chapter typed up and EVERYTHING and I was about to save it when my sister got me really mad and I slammed my hands on my keyboard, and I have no idea how this happened but the ENTIRE DOCUMENT got DELETED. I was like, staring at the screen for a whole minute, eyes wide until I started screaming at the computer to give it back XD !

So, after yelling myself hoarse, days later I get sick with a fever and a horrible cough. BLEHH. My throat feels like CRAP.

Btw, I'm going to Boston (hopefully, if I get better) for the weekend so no updates for at least like… 5 days. SORRY!


	14. Chapter 14

_Tahlian was running through the woods as a cat. He had no idea where he was going, what he was running from, or why he was running at all. All he knew was that he had to run, and run FAST._

_He couldn't feel himself growing tired. He didn't notice the cuts and scratches from the stones and twigs he was sprinting over bleed from running to fast._

_His animal instincts didn't let him know anything at all._

_If he did, he would go back._

_And to his animal side…_

_She wasn't worth dieing for. _

_Ruanae ran in the opposite direction of Tahlian. She had blown him out of her mind momentarily anyway. She ran and ran. She didn't stop until she noticed the setting sun on the horizon._

_She plopped next to a tree and fell into a deep slumber._

_She woke up the next day extremely tired and ill. She had a burning headache; he throat was dry from lack of water, her stomach growled for food. She couldn't feel her feet, and her arms refused to work. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again it was nightfall._

_An owl hooted into the wind. She began to think about the previous day, if she hadn't slept for a week._

_She felt angry with Tahlian for just running away, but then again, the way he melted into his cat form seemed… forced._

_Her anger built up as she remembered the glint in her attacker's dead eyes. She would have screamed with frustration if she could talk._

_She closed her eyes and it was the crack of dawn. She could barely keep her eyes open. She could almost feel herself dieing inside. She felt betrayed, confused, and hurt._

_She heard padded footsteps near the road she was near. She could hear a yell of a human and then people jumping off something, probably their mounts._

_The last thing she remembered was a man rushing up to her with snow white armour that had gold around the edges. Probably a Paladin. Just as she passed out, she saw a female Night Elf Priest, and a male Dwarf Hunter. _

Ruanae and Tahlian both woke up at the same time. He moaned as he lifted himself off the ground, a headache forming and feet hurting.

They had traveled the whole day without any stops. They had reached the Western Plaugelands border and they planned to reach the Alliance camp at the other side of the region by the end of this one, that or risk death by the hands of one of the many skeleton army's that laid around here.

"Ruanae?" he asked, looking at her tired figure on the ground. Her hands were on her eyes, blocking out the dim sunlight and trying to go back to sleep, "Ruanae, common we better get going. Don't want anything to catch up with us."

She mumbled something he couldn't hear, but it most likely was a curse. She lifted her hands out in front of her; her eyes still closed making one last attempt at sleep. Tahlian laughed as he got up and gripped her hands and helped her up.

They continued on. They traveled over a bridge and stayed off the road, but keeping it in sight. They moved across a few deserted farm fields, overrun by the scourge.

They eventually cross the road and swam across a lake, choosing to go around the ruins in their way.

Just as the sun began to set, the exhausted pair arrived at Chillwind Camp.

The residents there were quick to help them. They had to admit, they DID look like escaped prisoners. The cloth clothes they were wearing were ripped and tore, their bare feet scratched with unhealed cuts. They were soaking wet from the swim still and looked dead tired.

They gave them some new clothes and fed them with what they had. An alchemist there gave Tahlian a potion to heal his arm when he noticed him wincing when he moved it.

They had quite a nit of explaining to do. They told them how they were ambushed at Southshore, and taken away into the dungeons of the Undercity. They told them how they escaped and about how they got there. They were amazed at how nobody noticed them.

As they were sitting around the campfire, Ruanae couldn't help but notice one of the guards there looking at her strangely. His eyes were narrowed as if trying to remember something.

"Ruanae!" he suddenly said, his eyes opening. Everyone looked at him, "I knew I heard that name before!" he got up, smiling and went to sit next to her, "I can't believe I'm in the presence of a Commander!"

Ruanae blushed. Tahlian looked at her strangely, "You're a Commander, Ruanae?" he said curiously. She nodded slowly and looked up from her hands to face him.

"After the attack on Southshore, when we were little, I had managed to escape. I nearly died out in the wilderness, but I was found by a small group of the Alliance. The leader of the group, a male human Paladin, was quite high in the ranks for the Alliance. He took me in as his own. When I was old enough in his eyes he trained me for battle and my first battle was in Warsong Gulch," she looked back into the fire, "I was ten in human years, the age that most people begin to start."

"I managed to get out alive, I was well trained by the man. He never told me his name. I only called him Sir. I was quite good in the battles, and years passed and I was slowly making my way up the rankings. I was twenty in human years when Sir died of age. After that, I decided on staying in his house for a bit until I planned out what I was going to do."

"I planned on doing at least nine more battles. Three in Warsong Gulch, three in Arathi Basin, and three in Alterac Valley. I went through the first eight with ease, being a Commander spreads fear onto the battle before you even begin."

"But the last one… I got horribly injured as you know." She said looking back up at him with a small smile, "You saved my life."

* * *

"WHAT?" Giliath yelled across the room at the cowering messenger, "BRING THEM IN!"

He remained standing at his desk. Five scared guards came stumbling in.

Giliath took a deep breath, "So…" he said calmly, walking around the desk in his study in the Undercity, "They escaped." Each guard nodded once, "And you have no idea where they are?" they nodded clumsily again, "Well… GO!" he screamed the last word, "GO AND FIND THEM! Except… you two." He said pointing at two of them.

He picked up his sword and motioned for the two guards to follow him. They went outside and around to the back of the Undercity.

"Split up. Yell if you find them." He ordered. He had heard bickering voices around here not two seconds ago. He could almost smell the two elves. He glanced quickly to a tree in front of him. They were inside of it. He could almost make out their terrified looks from all the way up there, they hadn't noticed him look at them. He frowned as he walked away from them.

Just as he got out of sight he stealthy went back and behind the same tree. They were still staring at the same spot like statues. Finally, they actually decided to move and the male Night Elf jumped down and set the female one straight. Yes, these were the same elves from before.

He could tell by the female's eyes. They were full of life and color, with a mix of adventure but they were currently hazed over with fear.

The male he could tell because he heard that same name before, Tahlian. The female had been yelling it not to long ago. They sprinted away and Giliath followed them not to far behind.

By the second day of following, they had reached the Chillwind camp. He watched them around the fire talking to each other in whispered tones. He smirked to himself. It was so obvious they liked on another, but they were in the denial stage. He figured that unless he got some food soon, he would die of hunger. He walked off to find an unlucky bear.

* * *

Ruanae couldn't sleep. She quietly got up from the blanket she was on and left the camp. She walked on the road, planning on watching the moon reflect on the lake. She always liked the view of moonlight on water.

"Tahlian?" Ruanae whispered as she approached. She hadn't noticed his blanket empty when she left, but there he was, standing there and looking out onto the water.

"Ruanae?" he whispered back. She smiled at him and went to stand next to him. They were silent for a while, enjoying each other's company.

"What are we doing from here?" Ruanae asked. Tahlian frowned. He had not thought about that. Was it really worth continuing their trip?

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think that continuing this trip would be the best of ideas." Ruanae gave out a small laugh.

"Yea." She looked at Tahlian.

"Tahlian?" she whispered again.

Tahlian turned and looked at her, "Huh?" he whispered back, looking into her glowing eyes.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked softly. Tahlian knew exactly what he was thinking about. He was debating on whether or not he actually likes Ruanae or not. He had the same debate going on for quite awhile now. Looking at her now, he realized the answer. Shit. I'm in love with Ruanae.

Not wanting to lie, he told her the truth. "You." Ruanae could not lie to herself, she was glad to hear that. She had already told herself that they were just friends before, but she already realized she liked him when she woke up in the cell and the first thing she saw was Tahlian's concerned face.

"What about me?" she asked softly.

Tahlian looked deep into her eyes. He saw love and compassion in them. He moved his hand from his side and held her hand.

"About how beautifully you look tonight." He said smiling. She smiled. Her eyes seemed to have lit up even more. They stood there for a couple of moments, just staring at each other, both wondering what was going to happen next.

Whatever madness had suddenly came over Tahlian, he would never know. He slowly leaned in and kissed Ruanae.

Shocked, Ruanae did nothing at first when she felt Tahlian's lips on hers. It felt like an hour before her brain finally screamed at her: FREAKING REACT! KISS HIM! And so she did.

Relief swarmed Tahlian when Ruanae kissed him back. He felt so stupid for a moment just waiting.

When they broke off, they just stood there facing each other, waiting for somebody to say something.

"Um…" Tahlian said, looking down at her.

"Didn't expect that." Ruanae said.

"Not exactly." Tahlian said smiling.

They walked back to camp, hand in hand.

* * *

A/N: omg. I fricken suck at writing mushy stuff XD could u tell? Anyways… I was to sick to go. GR. Good news is that I'm getting better but I am getting a COLD now and I H8 colds! Grr… I am jealous of all of u who don't seem to be sickness magnets -.- 


	15. Chapter 15

Giliath watched the male elf, Tahlian he presumed his name was, as he kept rolling in his sleep. Eventually the elf got up and started to walk away, stopping to watch the female elf for a moment. 

He followed him to the lake. It looked pleasanter during the night with the moonlight shining on it. The elf stood there, looking up at the moon and then back down to the water. He stood like that for a while.

He didn't notice the female elf waking up until she came into his sight. He watched as the elf jumped slightly when she saw her friend. Giliath smiled to himself and plopped down. THIS should be interesting.

He watched as the two elves exchanged greetings and they both watched the moonlight side by side. They made a cute couple, he thought as he watched them talk for a short while before the male grasped the female's hand.

He watched with a smirk as the male gently kissed her, and then it turned more into a passionate one when the female began to respond after the moment of shock. 

He may have been one of the most hated creatures on Azeroth, probably the most evil and unforgiving, the most meanest and cruelest, but even HE saw that one coming even if he only examined their movements for a couple of days. 

He began to think as the couple walked back to the camp. They were no doubt the elves that he had encountered years ago at Southshore. How long was that ago? He had no idea but he was very young then and now he was nearing retirement, but still was an extreme danger on any battlefield. 

He never wanted to kill anybody at the helpless town. What honor was given to him by slaying the helpless or the elderly? The children and woman? The blind or injured? 

No honor was given; only by the two people he called friends. All they were was a bunch of murders, slayers of the Alliance no matter what. Blinded by the speeches given by the mad in the cities. 

He never saw if before, but suddenly these two elves had opened his eyes to what really he was doing. 

And he hated it. 

Deeply. 

Ruanae awoke that morning with a new spring in her step. The people in the campsite were giving her odd looks but she passed them off without a care in the world. 

Tahlian and her were _together _a _couple._

Three days ago if you went up to Ruanae and said that she and Tahlian would be together after escaping the Undercity in boxes she probably would have punched them.

But hey, who said life had to make sense? And personally, she didn't give a rat's ass about sense anymore. 

She packed up the last of the food they had been supplied with and lifted it to the prepared gryphon. She strapped it on and patted the animal softly as she went back to collect a small blanket. 

She had finally gotten around to taking a bath in the lake. Even though the water looked dirty, it was very refreshing. She had tied a small part of her hair into a small ponytail on top of her head while the rest of it fell to her shoulders, like always. She wore the dress that a female had kindly let her barrow until she got new armour. 

It was a completely brown dress that went all the way down to her shoes (black leather ones also kindly lent to her). Some silver streaks curved around the dress while the chest had some white spread around it. The arms of it were loose.

She didn't really like wearing dresses, they made her look girly. Tahlian, of course, said she looked beautiful, but if he said otherwise he knew that she would have slugged him in the arm. 

They had both decided to ride back to Stormwind and take positions as waitress and chef to pay for staying there for around a week. During the nights, they would plan their next move. 

Ruanae, personally, wanted to go back to their homeland. Visit some friends; catch up with what they missed through the long years away. She wanted to see Darnasuss, breath in the life within. She wanted to feel the smooth grass under her feet, touch the smooth tree bark. Maybe she would even find and bring back a new companion. 

She also wanted to find a settle home. She was tired of running, struggling to survive. She was tired of constantly being on her top guard during the long Alterc Valley battles and the panic before she entered the Alliance base in Warsong Gulch, carrying the Horde flag. The flags would represent ownership of the land. 

She would of course continue her practices with her bow and sword, when she got new ones. Training and fighting were in her blood, in her soul. 

She didn't want to be apart of the fight against the horde. Let the others settle their arguments with voice or sword. Why should she care? It didn't involve her personally, except the fact that they murdered her parent's. Her eyes began to sting as the long forgotten memory arose. Ok, so she was directly involved. Who wasn't?

It would take quite a push for her to risk herself going into another prison like that. 

Ruanae set the last set of blankets in the bags and she made sure everything was tight. Tahlian would be coming soon, he was out exploring the woods. He had been examining the birds a lot lately, he seemed to be fascinated by them. 

Before she was looking for their maps when she spotted some sketches of birds in his bags. They looked quite complex, stating hypothesis on how they could fly and keep themselves up in the air. Also spells were written on another sheet. 

She didn't know much about druid study, but she knew very well that he was planning on trying to morph into a bird. A walk in the woods would be a perfect time to try it. She smiled as she looked to the skies, wondering if he would come sweeping down as a dove or a raven. 

She sighed as all she saw was the dull sky of the Plaguelands. 

She felt a tap on her shoulder and she looked around to see the kind female who had lent her the clothes. She smiled warmly to her.

"Thank you again for lending me your clothes, Juina." Ruanae said with a bow. 

"Oh, it's ok. You can keep them. I don't see how you could return them anyways." Juina said with a wave of her hand, "So…" 

Juina was a female human adventurer. She had long black hair down to her shoulders, which curved up a bit. She had fair skin and wore a kind face with a perfect shade of brown eyes. She was a mage, and therefore had many spare robes from apprenticeship. She had stopped off at the camp to rest for a couple days as well. 

"So…" she repeated with more enthusiasm. They had become quite close during the days spent together. Juina was the kind of person who always noticed a relationship when if formed, even if it was between a murloc and a cow. 

"So… what?" Ruanae said, congratulating herself on how calm her voice was. 

"You know what I mean!" she said excitedly, leading her to her small blanket that she slept on and settling her on the grass, "You and Tahlian got together last night, I can tell!" she said with a happy glint in her eyes, "Tell me!" 

Ruanae laughed. Juina was an interesting person. She was one of the most care free people she met in her life but at a moment's notice she went from jumping up and down to a stone faced mass murderer. 

"Yes." Ruanae admitted, wanting to get if off her chest as fast as possible, "Last night. It was kind of… unexpected." She said with an afterthought, "I went to the lake during the night and I noticed Tahlian there too. I walked up and we talked a bit and, well, he kissed me." 

Juina gasped, "Talk about luck! I always wanted that to happen to me! I mean you guys have been friends since like, childhood no? Yea? Well that IS kind of unexpected you know? I would have thought that you would first fall for someone else, then Tahlian get all jealous and then deny it and all of that…" and Juina began to go on, like she always did so Ruanae stopped listening, giving a nod and a smile whenever she paused and looked at her. 

She looked up and was startled to see a raven flying over the woods. It looked so carefree; she never saw a bird act that way. They usually were always on alert for food and predators. Maybe it was suicidal or something…

As it got closer her amazing Night Elf Hunter vision gave her a close up on the bird. It looked almost purplish blue. It had white markings on it's face, and- wait a minute. White markings? She looked closer and her eyes widened at the druidic markings on the bird's face. Juina saw he look and looked up to see her staring wide eyed at a bird in the distance. 

"What are you looking at, Rua?" Juina asked, confused. 

"That's Tahlian!" she exclaimed, "He must have found out how to form into a bird without the help of a Master!" She laughed as she saw the bird dive to the camp. 

The bird came closer and soon most people in the camp were looking at it, either big smiles on their faces or confused ones. As the bird landed in front of Ruanae she laughed and kneeled down. 

"Tahlian!" she said, patting it's head, "How did you get a bird form?" The bird blinked at her. 

The bird stretched and began to grow very tall. Bones began to shift, it wasn't like the burst of smoke and there was Tahlian, most likely the first couple of morphs his body had to get used to.

Soon she stood up to face the back stretching Tahlian in elf form. She laughed and began to massage the stiffness from his back. He immediately stopped stretching and enjoyed as he hands expertly moved across his shoulders digging into the knots. 

"Ahh…" he said when she stopped, faced her and smiled, "Guess what, Ruanae? I got my bird form!" 

"I noticed." She said with a smile, "Come one, the gryphon is ready." 

"I can always fly alongside of you, you know." He said glancing at her. She raised an eyebrow, "Or not…" 

"Remember to send me a letter!" Juina said to them as she waved to them about to shoot into the sky. 

"Don't worry, I will!" Ruanae yelled back and waved. 

And the gryphon jumped into the air, unfolding its wings and pushing them up and down gaining altitude. Ruanae laughed as they soared into the air, knowing fully well that the ride would take most of the day from them. 

Tahlian smiled as Ruanae stretched her arms above her head and leaned back against him, He smiled down at her when she looked up at him. He smoothed some of her hair back from her eyes and spoke. 

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, yelling above the wind. 

"What are we doing when we get to Stormwind and get those jobs, Tahlian?" she yelled back

His smile faltered slightly but he lifted it up again, "Let's take it one step at a time, Sunshine." He had been calling her that ever since the morning. He had made a comment on how well she reflected against the morning sun and gave her a pet name. She had sworn she would find one even more embarrassing than Sunshine, even though Juina found nothing wrong with the name except that it was "cute".

Ruanae shrugged against his chest and snuggled against him to avoid the wind's chill.

A couple hours into the ride, Tahlian found Ruanae had fell asleep when he asked her if she was hungry. He smiled softly at the elf and brushed some hair out of her face. 

They got together so suddenly, but it felt like they had been together for years. They understood each other from being friends for so long, which just drew them closer. They acted the same around each other, except more… couplish. 

Nothing could break them apart, Tahlian thought. 

He would have been right of course, had he seen into the future at that moment however, he would have seriously doubted it. 

A/N ok yea I was really getting into it before I counted the pages that I wrote and I'm like wow! So I had to cut it off before the chapter got to long, incase any of you are wondering why it got cut off so short, that's why.

THANK YOU THANK YOU for you reviews! 


	16. Chapter 16

The day had passed by slowly

The day had passed by slowly. Tahlian, with Ruanae resting on his chest, had gazed out at the view of Azeroth with awe. It was amazing when you flew over the right zones. They would point out specific creatures they could see and saw a couple of facts on them.

When they finally landed in Stormwind, they were sore all around. Sitting in nearly the same position for most of the day does that to you.

They thanked the Gryphon Master and walked off with their supplies on their backs, heading off to a tavern. They would have to walk all the way to Goldshire just to get to an inn with some open jobs and a place to sleep.

"I wish Winter or Midnight didn't run off." Ruanae pouted, her hand in Tahlian's as they walked on the dirt path out of Stormwind to Goldshire.

"I would have hoped that Winter at least would have been brave enough to at least try and fight them." Tahlian said grimly.

Ruanae nodded in agreement. She sighed as some flashbacks of her and Winter came before her eyes. That bloody coward.

It was not long until they came to the small town. A blacksmith's shop lay on the right side of Goldshire while the inn was on the left. They walked into the inn and followed the hallway to the right and entered the friendly looking place.

Random adventurers were standing around or sitting in one of the chairs that was against the walls or the table near the fireplace, drinking or eating, chatting with their friends. They walked over to the innkeeper at the other side of the inn, near the bar where a bartender was slowly cleaning a glass with a rag.

"Hello." The man said, "Do you wish to rent out a room for the day?"

"Actually, we were wondering whether there were any jobs available for maybe a week?" Ruanae asked. The innkeeper frowned in thought. His face lit up after a moment.

"Why, actually yes there is. My bartender is going away for around a week so I'm left short-handed tomorrow and through that week. One of our chefs is moving to Loch Modon also, so we would need a cook for now. What do you say? The pay for each is 50 silver per day! Real good for it to."

Ruanae looked at Tahlian, who was trying not to laugh at the thought of Ruanae standing behind the bar and serving drinks to people. Ruanae gave him a glare and turned back to the innkeeper.

"We will take them." She said firmly. Tahlian looked surprised.

"You know," Tahlian said when he walked back into their room. There were two small beds on either side of the room with a small table near the door. A chest lay between the two beds, which was locked. They had no idea why it was there, "I didn't think that you would want that bartending job. I could have supported both of us with the pay he is giving me."

"But where's the fun if you don't try something new?" exclaimed Ruanae, slipping on her shoe, "I really need to get new armour."

"I think you look dashing." Tahlian said with a smirk, walking up to her and kissing her on the head.

"You're supposed to say that though." Ruanae smiled and lead the two out of the room and down the stairs.

"Ah! There you two are." The innkeeper said as he spotted them, "You," he said, pointing to Tahlian, "All the cooking supplies are in there." And he pointed to the back room where another chef was busily preparing for the night rush hour.

"You," he pointed to Ruanae.

"I have a name." Ruanae glared, "It's Ruanae. And this is Tahlian." She said waving a hand to him.

"Right, right." The innkeeper said waving it off, "Ruanae, just set up behind the bar, when the orders come just pour it in the glass and give it to them. If they seem really drunk, try and get them out before they start a fight. Understand?" Ruanae nodded.

Tahlian walked into the back room and helped the chef prepare with a nod while Ruanae set up some glasses behind the bar. People began to swarm in for the night ten minutes in.

Five men and a single female sat at the bar. Ruanae each served them a single drink that they ordered, each one sitting and chatting with the one next to them while the male human at the end of the chairs near the bar was flirting with the female, who was a Night Elf.

The waiter and waitress were running around and serving food to people. Ruanae felt bad for them, knowing what it was like. She smiled as she thought about how Tahlian would look when he came out. Probably covered head to toe in food scraps.

Eventually, the men at near the bar got extremely drunk and lost common sense. They began to talk in loud voices and asked stupid questions to the sober people, who looked at them crazily. One of them walked right up to the place that Ruanae was standing, watching the show play out before her, and leaned an arm on the bar and said,

"Hellooo there." In the most roughish way that she had ever heard. She had glared at him and warned him to back off or he would find himself tied to the largest tree outside hanging by his ankles. The deathly look she was giving him through the whole time made him shiver in fear, silently pay the 3 gold he owed her, and quickly left suddenly quite sober.

As the night went by, it slowly got slower as people left to head to Stormwind or go upstairs to their rooms. When the last person finally left, a gnome mage by the looks of him, walked upstairs, yawning on the way up, Tahlian came out of the kitchen. Ruanae stifled a laugh at his appearance.

His perfectly white shirt had a huge orange stain on his right shoulder. His chest had a smeared handprint where he probably whipped his hand in a rush to get an unknown food off of his hand.

His left cheek and his left pants leg also had signs of soup on them. He sighed when he watched Ruanae cover her mouth. He whipped his cheek and smiled at her.

"Do I really look that bad?" he asked

"Aw, not really, just pretty funny. A bath wouldn't hurt either, since you smell like chicken." She laughed, walked over to him and allowing him to wrap and arm around her waist.

She rested her head on his shoulder yawning as they made their way up the stairs.

Giliath had made his way slowly back to the Undercity, thinking along the way. He probably would take his stuff, grab his stead, and set off and live some place quietly, away from the war and constant need to go out once a day and bring back the heads of his victims.

He would live on the land west of here, he thought. What was the name again? He forgot, he would have to look it up once he got to his room.

As he approached the Undercity, something didn't seem right. There was far too much noise for it. Normally, there was an eerie silence that surrounded it, giving off the look of death. But now, there were undead horses yelping, excited voices yelling.

When he got close enough, he could saw with horror that there were at least eight rows of the undead horses lined up, Undead with war armour on, everyone mounting and looking excited. He looked up front and saw, with terror, his own stead ahead of the others, his two friends steeds beside it, each talking to one another, looking around. Dalen and Ren.

Someone came up from behind him, and tapped him on the back. He whizzed around, his sword pointing at his attacker when he saw that it was but a frightened warrior.

"Sir, you are expected to lead the army." He said.

"Why? Where is it going? What is going on here?" he asked in a rush.

The undead motioned for him to follow him, and he followed him as they slowly made their way down to the army.

"Your friends have been planning an attack on Stormwind for awhile now, they said you didn't know. They wanted it to be a surprise." He mentally groaned, "They gathered up this army and we are preparing for a two day travel to Stormwind. They should tell you the rest." He said as they approached them.

"What is going on here?" Giliath hissed.

"Something that will make you a hero." Dalen smiled.

"You are going to lead us into battle with an attack on Stormwind!" Ren said with a smirk, "Your leader skills are know throughout the Horde, Giliath! This attack will be legendary! Stories of you will be told to every child from every elder! You will be a hero!"

Giliath sighed. So much for a quiet get away. He looked at his horse uneasily.

"I don't know, guys." He said mournfully.

They both looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Dude, we are doing this for you. The only reason these people are here is because we told them that YOU were going to lead them!"

He sighed. Slowly getting onto his horse, he looked around and the small army slowly got quiet, everyone looking at him.

"Lets move out!" he yelled loudly. Everyone cheered as they marched the horse forward, preparing for the fight of their lives. Nobody saw the Night Elf scurrying away, look of pure fear on her face as she morphed into a cheetah and ran with great speed to the nearest city, Ironforge.

A day later, everything was quiet in Ironforge. The guards made their rounds, the engineers and smiths banged on the anvils, chefs made breads, and people drank ale. Nothing out of the ordinary.

That was why nearly everyone in the druid's way looked and stared at her as her cheetah form burst passed everyone and ran into the King's Chambers.

She melted back into her elf form, on her hands an knees panting loudly. She could barely talk, and she was obviously trying to say a lot at once.

"Bring her some water!" the king yelled as he and some guards rushed down to her. He rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Be still, Night Elf. All will be explained in due time. WHERES THAT BLASTED WATER?" he roared. A woman came running in, carrying a mug full of cool water. He grabbed it from her with a nod of thanks and offered it to the gasping Night Elf. She took it gratefully and took small sips from it at first but soon big gulps. She finally gained most of her breath back before looking up at the confused faces.

"Ran from Undercity." They all looked at one another, "Army. Undead. Heading for Stormwind." She grabbed her bag from her back and pulled out a map, and a crumbled up paper, "Found these near them."

The map had a drawing of a pathway from the Undercity to Stormwind. They avoided any Alliance towns, obviously wanting the advantage of surprise once they got there. The dwarf king looked at it in shock. He looked at her.

"How many?" he whispered.

"Eight rows, fifteen in each row." She said, finally gaining her breath, fighting to keep her eyes open. He nodded at her, thankfully.

"You have done well. What is your name?" he asked

"Arihar, Sir." She said hiding a yawn, "I am a spy…" and she passed out.

"Get her a bed! And get some of the best gryphons with the best flyers to me right now!" he yelled.

Two fancy armed dwarfs came up to him around five minutes later, each bowing to him.

"You," he said to the first one, "Take these." He gave him the note written in orcish and the map. "You." He said to the other one. He pulled out a note from himself explaining everything, about how the elf came, and what was going on. "Take this. Fly directly to Stormwind. Keep each other in sight at all times. No stops! Get there with all haste; the fate of that city is lying within the speed of those birds! GO!" and they sprinted off. He watched as two armed gryphons took off, flying in great speed out of the city.

He asked for his war commander. Not long after a male dwarf came in with black armour on. He had orange hair with a long beard.

"I want you to take ¼ of our troops down to Stormwind, commander. Get there with all haste, there will be an attack on there very soon. Get there before nightfall." He nodded and left, yelling out orders.

The king sighed, standing back in his place. So long for a normal day.

The tiny king stood in Stormwind Keep, doing nothing but examining the floor like he always did, every day and let the two people next to him take care of the confusing conversations he would have to take one day.

But he was not old enough to understand.

But, one day, he would shine as a leader of the humans. He knew it.

He looked up as he heard two pairs of running footsteps. Confused, he saw two dwarfs looking wind swept. They each held some paper in their hands. When they approached him, they each bowed and one of them spoke hastily.

"Sir, we have some bad news." The first one said.

"There is going to be a massive attack on Stormwind some time tomorrow." The second one said. Everyone in the Keep turned around, each paying there fullest attention to the conversation now. The small King was wide eyed now.

"How big will it be?" he asked

"Quite large, Sir, eight rows with fifteen in each row our spy said." The small king frowned. This was the perfect opportunity to shine, but he had no experience in war. Sure, he knew that he was supposed to say 'Put guards up around the city, make barriers!' but that was it.

"We need to put more guards up around the walls of the city. Make a barrier at the main gate."

"You mean, reinforce the gate, Sir?" the man beside him asked.

"Yea, that." He said with a frown. He set his brain to work. His tiny child mind could not think of anything else, but he knew he was missing something.

"What should we do with the citizens, Sir?" The lady next to him asked, looking quite suspicious.

"Oh, yea, don't we have someplace to keep them safe?" he asked.

"We could teleport most of them out to the other cities as refugees for now and they could teleport them back once the battle is over. The ones we cant teleport out will have to be held here in the keep, guards surrounding along with you."

The child nodded. "Ok, lets go with that." The man nodded and began to yell at the guards, and some of them ran out of the keep, preparing to spread the news to the rest of the guard and help prepare the city.

Ruanae yawned as she woke up that morning. She looked over to the bed next to her to see Tahlian still asleep, chest steadily moving up and down. She smiled softly to him and got up. She walked bare footed down to the inn and outside. Cool morning air greeted her and she stretched her hands above her head.

She took a deep breath and looked up in the sky. It was around seven from what she could tell, so Tahlian probably wouldn't be up for another hour or so. Goldshire was quiet this morning, so she decided to take a walk. She went inside and back up to their room. Tip toeing to her shoes, she grabbed them and snuck back out and put them on.

Walking out of the inn, she walked along the road to Stormwind. She looked up in the sky and saw two gryphons speeding to Stormwind. She shrugged it off, probably a late delivery.

Walking along the road she stopped half way to Stormwind and settled under a tree, leaning against its trunk. She closed her eyes, enjoying the peace and quiet.

It was the rare moments like this that she enjoyed. She looked into her money pouch and noticed she had quite a bit of gold, so she decided to get some armour while she was out. Getting up, she walked back to Goldshire and went inside the Blacksmith.

Speaking with him, he sold her a fine set of leather armour. He said he normally didn't sell leather, but it was an extra set he happened to have.

She thanked him and walked back out, carrying the brown armour. Walking back up to their room, she noticed that Tahlian was not in his bed. He probably went to speak with the innkeeper about their pay. She quickly pulled off the dress and placed on some under clothing before putting on the leather. It fit perfectly.

It was completely brown, going all the way down to her ankles and her wrists. She strapped on the belt but didn't attach any bags to it yet, she was not going to be traveling for at least another couple days.

Walking down the stairs, she spotted Tahlian in a chair, his back to her. She smiled and snuck up behind him.

"Boo!" she yelled as she shoved both of his shoulder playfully. He gasped in surprise and whirled around. He glared at her as she giggled.

"Must you be so loud in the morning?" he groaned and he turned back around, waiting for his meal.

"Aw, looks like somebody has a morning temper." She cooed. He glared at her, "What, no 'Good morning, my love'? Not even a small kiss?" she pouted.

"Not now, you don't deserve it." He grinned.

"I'm hurt."

He sighed dramatically. "Good morning, my love." She he kissed her on her lips.

"Good morning." She smiled. He face turned serious once his food arrived, "We have to decide on what we are going to do, you know. Are we going to go back to Darnassus? Stay here? I don't feel like being a bartender for the rest of my long life."

There was a bit of yelling outside now. Ruanae and Tahlian both looked up to see a guard rushing in. It seemed like the rest of Goldshire came in behind him. The guard moved to the middle of the room and began to yell.

"Listen, people, you all need to make your way to Stormwind immediately. You are all in possible danger. There is going to be an attack on Stormwind sometime tomorrow and we need to move you all to safety."

"By bringing us INSIDE the place that being attacked??" someone yelled.

The guard sighed. "We are going to whip up some portals and get you out and into Ironforge, Darnassus, or the Exodar. Now please get only what you need and meet the rest of the escort guards at the road to Stormwind!" and he ran out.

Ruanae looked at Tahlian in fear while Tahlian had a blank expression on his face.

"Come." He said, grabbing her hand and joining the rest of the people in the mad rush to their rooms. He began to grab their bags, shoving whatever in reach in them and Ruanae followed the same suit. Tahlian glanced at her, finally noticing the new armour.

"Nice armour." He said grabbing the last piece of paper and closing the bag.

"Thanks." She said taking the last shoe and shoving it in her bags, "Lets go."

They rushed out and joined the group at the roads. Guards on horses and some on the ground were all yelling at people to settle down. Eventually, they all grew quiet and they began to walk, people murmuring to each other.

"Ruanae?" Tahlian asked her, looking down to her. He hand her closer to him, not wanting to let go.

"Huh?" she said, looking up.

"Maybe we should help them out. Do a bit of fighting, help with the portals, stuff like that. They could use people with our experience."

She frowned, "Tahlian, I don't want to even think about fighting again. I have had far too much experience of what could happen in it. I lost two of my best friends in battles. I'm not going to loose you."

"What happened to your adventure side, the side that wanted to always help out, always wanted to fight alongside the guards of he hometown?"

"That side is gone, Tahlian, all I want is a peaceful life with the man I love." She said, blushing a bit. She dearly wanted to fight alongside these people but she couldn't. She would not loose Tahlian.

"Ruanae, these people need us. You can't just dismiss it because you don't want to." He said, frowning a bit. What was going on? She always wanted to be in the center of the battlefield. She said she didn't want to fight because she was afraid to loose him…

"Tahlian, I have a reason to not go running blindly into battle now."

"Listen, Ruanae, I am going to be in the battle with you by my side or not. I will no doubt be deeply upset without you there. I'm begging you to stop this foolishness! You know you want to fight, then do it! Your heart is telling you to!"

They were approaching Stormwind now.

"Tahlian, I wont be in the battle."

"Well, I will. And like I said, with you or without." And he removed her from his side and stepped ahead of the people in front of them, and spoke with the guards. They nodded at him.

Ruanae was close to tears.

A/N I AM SO SRRY FOR NOT UPDATING I AM SUCH A HORRIBLE PERSON!

I have been so busy, im so srry!

Forgive me!


	17. The Battle for Stormwind p 1

It was cold in Stormwind Keep

It was cold in Stormwind Keep. It had an eerie silence to it, everyone around her seemed to either be frightened, scared or a determined look on their face. The place was so crowded that she could hardly move. Woman, children and elderly were around her. Most of the men in Stormwind had offered their services to them. All she knew was they were setting up positions, sharpening their sword, and reinforcing the main gate.

Her thoughts drifted to Tahlian. What was he doing now? She closed her eyes; it was too painful to think about him now. How he just suddenly leaves her, not caring if he dies and leaves her alone. How could he be so selfish?

She had only just realized she loved him not to long ago. She needed him with her, to have him hold her when she cried. To help her when she failed, to support her through anything.

He needed her support when he made his decision to fight though.

But she needed him, and running off to fight was selfish of him. To her.

Tahlian accepted the armour he was given. It was blue leather with a blue helm. He said he didn't need it; he would be transformed into a cat of a bear most of the time. Maybe even his new form, a bird.

But they insisted. So, here he was, replacing his old armour with this new kind. That was blue.

He couldn't get over the fact that he would be wearing blue armour. He hadn't seen to many people wear it, your enemies noticed you to well with it. Unless you were fighting in the water.

He flexed his arms in it. It seemed to move fine. He gave a second thought about the helm. He walked over to another man with a set of blue armour who didn't have a helm and offered it to him. The man accepted it gratefully. Ruanae new he hated helmets.

Ruanae. How could she simply turn into someone who flees from battles when she used to run to them? She used to love to fight, fight alongside her people. She would never turn her back to the people who need her.

And yet, there she was, sitting in Stormwind keep waiting for her turn to leave through a portal. To Darnassus.

At least she got what she wanted, she would be returning to her homeland.

Without him.

He felt abandoned.

Giliath led the army across the zones of the Eastern Kingdoms. He led them away from danger and to safety. He made sure that nobody got lost.

And he felt horrible when he reached Goldshire. Every other leader would be proud of what they did.

And yet, something didn't feel right. The town was abandoned.

"They knew we were coming!" Dalen hissed.

"We camp here for the night then." Giliath said. It was nearing night, and the troops were tired and the horses needed to rest.

After an hour of making sure everything was in order, he walked back to the tent he was staying in. They had raided the small town for supplies so they would be in top condition for the battle tomorrow.

He had no idea why he was making these troops so prepared. If he didn't want to slay these people, why are they looking so healthy and their armour in top condition? Because people expected it.

But, he swore to himself, should the need arise, he would abandon these people and do whatever he had to do. It made him feel better knowing that.

"Get some rest, Giliath." Ren said sitting next to him by the fire. The entire land around Goldshire was full with undead, "You have an army to lead tomorrow." She smiled.

Giliath nodded. He walked into his tent and lay on the mat there. He sighed and covered his face with his hands. Taking a deep breath, he allowed sleep to over take him.

Ruanae released the breath she didn't realized she was holding when they said that they couldn't make another portal until the morning. She didn't know why she was glad to hear that, she should be angry. She should want to get out of here.

But she didn't. She wanted to fight alongside Tahlian.

But she didn't want to loose him more. She refused to fight if it meant that Tahlian's life was in danger because of her. She had already gone through depression from loosing someone close to her three times. Flashbacks arose.

Waking up in a bed inside the Catheradal. Looking into the man's eyes next to her. His eyes held sadness. She began to remember what had happened.

_The attack on Southshore. Running away from the Undead. Growing weak under a tree for days. Being saved by some people unknown and then passing out. She looked at the man again. _

_Tears formed in her eyes. She began to weep. Her parents. Dead. Tahlian's parents. Dead. She couldn't take it. She began to cry more. The man got up quickly and came to her side, brushing some hair out of her face._

"_Shhh…" he said quietly. She began to hiccup but stopped, "Can me?" he said. She only understood two words in the sentence. _

"_Where am I? Who are you? Where is Tahlian?" she cried, speaking in Darnasian. The man sighed. He called for someone and a Night Elf priest came in. She looked at her with mournful eyes. _

"_Hi, honey." She said in Darnasian. Ruanae looked at her, grateful for someone to speak to her in her own tongue, "How are you feeling?" _

_She shook her head. "Bad." She said._

"_I'm sorry to hear that. Hey, I know it's going to be a bit painful to talk about this so you don't have to answer, but can you remember anything about the attack?" tears formed into her eyes again and she wept. She shook her head and shrunk into the blankets. _

Ruanae sighed as the memory drifted away and another one coming.

She opened her eyes from the portal. Warsong Gulch seemed normal, and she looked behind her to see her best friend, Ella. She smiled at her.

"_Hey Ella, ready to kick some horde butt?" she said to the mage. _

"_Heck yea!" she exclaimed. _

_The gates rose and they rushed out, each calling their steeds. _

_They entered the horde base in great stealth. As they went on the roof, Ruanae aimed an arrow to an orc defending the flag at the bottom and caught him in the neck. The orc fell and did not rise. Ella nodded to her and they jumped down. Ella grabbed the flag and they rushed out. _

_They were almost halfway to their base when a shaman caught up to them. The shaman glared at Ella and prepared a spell. _

"_ELLA WATCH OUT!" she screamed and aimed an arrow. Ella whipped her head around to see a lighting bolt come straight to her and catch her in her chest. Her eyes grew wide with shock. _

_Slowly, or quite quickly, she didn't know, Ella fell. Her eyes drooped and she dropped the flag._

"_Ella?" she asked quietly. She ran over to her and lifted her head onto her lap. _

"_Ella?! Ella?! Are you ok?" but she already knew the answer. Tears formed in her eyes. "ELLA!" she screamed. She looked up to see the Shaman grinning at her wickedly. _

_She jumped up and shot and arrow to him, arcane energy trailing on it. It caught him on his shoulder but the arcane magic did it. He fell. _

_Weeping, she slowly picked the flag up, she had a job to do. Giving Ella one last look, she turned around and ran. _

"_I'm sorry, Ella." She whispered _

Holding back tears now, the memory vanished as fast as it came.

She was older now. She learned to not have to many close friends, or they would be ripped away from her. Like Ella. But there was one other now, she could tell him anything. They loved each other like brother and sister, laughing and annoying, hurting and forgiving like ones.

_They were in Ironforge, being sent there to deliver a package. They were walking out as they talked. They planned to stay in a nearby town for a bit before coming back and taking the next tram out. _

"_So, what do you want to do when we get there?" the elf said passively, looking to the sky. The rouge enjoyed watching the clouds go by, amazed at the shapes they took. An unending entertainment. _

"_Not sure. Lets just grab something to drink and talk with the locals. I haven't talked to many gnomes or dwarves for awhile." _

"_Because Ginger keeps scaring them off." He said, referring to the monkey walking next to them. She had gotten him in Stranglethorn Vale. She loved Ginger. _

"_That's true. Ginger, no more teasing the gnomes. Or the dwarves. Unless I say so." She said, patting the gorilla's head. It made a "oo oo ah ah." Sound and they laughed. Looking up at the mountains something caught her eye. Something green. She stopped and looked closer. _

"_Ruanae?" Dalon asked, confused. _

"_Do you see anything up there?" she asked, pointing. Dalon squinted up at where she was pointing. For a moment he just stared before he randomly dov eat her, pushing her to the side. _

"_Dalon! What was that – " but she stopped when she noticed five arrows where she was just a moment ago. She stared open mouthed. _

"_ORCS!" Dalon yelled. Guards heard him and came rushing. _

_At least fifteen orcs came charging down from the mountains. Dalon got up off of Ruanae and they both drew their swords. Ginger was in a battle stance, angry her master nearly died. _

"_CHARGE!" one of the dwarf guards yelled and the small group ran to the slightly larger group of orcs. _

_With a clang of medal they reached each other, slashing and stabbing and blood spilled from both sides. Angry voices came from behind them as people noticed the fight and came running to aid them. _

"_Ruanae, duck!" Dalon yelled and Ruanae ducked, avoiding a sword from behind. _

"_Doge right!" she yelled. He jumped to the right as an axe came cleaving down where he used to be. The battle continued on._

_Now overpowering them with their numbers they began to retreat. But nobody was about to let them run away. And one orc was not going to flee. Dolan was attacking the huge orc as the retreat started and was having a bit of difficulty dodging his blows. He had a grave wound in his left arm that bled rapidly. _

"_Dolan, get away from him!" Ruanae yelled as she took her sword from a orc warrior. Ginger lay dead on the snow. A tear was already on her cheek when she yelled. _

"_I can do this!" Dolan yelled back _

"_No, Dolan, wait – " but the orc's sword went into his side. He screamed in pain. _

"_DOLAN!" she yelled as the orc ran away with the others, "Dolan! Speak to me!" she yelled as she ran up to him. He was fighting to keep his eyes open. _

"_Ruanae?" he asked in a whisper. _

"_GET A HEALER!" she screamed to the guards and they ran off yelling, "I am here, Dolan." She whispered back, "Stay with me Dolan! Don't leave me now!" _

"_Ruanae…" he repeated, his voice carrying off. He reached his hand up and touched her cheek, "Ruanae, promise me something?" _

"_Anything." She whispered, tears coming from her eyes, softly sobbing. She was loosing another loved one. How could this be happening? _

"_Don't change. Men like a girl who giving everything a fighting chance, does what she believes in." his voice was growing quieter, "Don't change one bit." _

"_I promise." She cried. His eyes drooped shut, "Dolan? DOLAN? Wake up Dolan! Don't leave me! By Elune, no!" _

Ruanae shut her eyes, letting the tears fall as she lay down to sleep. She knew what she had to do.

Tahlian sighed as the spy's announced that camps had been set up around Goldshire. They wouldn't be attacking till morning, so they had time to rest.

He slowly sat down on the edge of the bridge over a canal. Ruanae wasn't going to come. He had dearly hoped she would swallow her stupid speech about him dieing and just come out and be by his side.

He got off of the edge and leaned against the wall near the bridge. He was stationed there and told to not let any undead past him until he was dead with fifteen arrows sticking out of him. He laughed weakly at this and walked to his post.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He wouldn't be getting any sleep today.

A/N: Yea, short chapter. I just needed to have 1 more till the big battle, and I feel like I owe u guys 2 chapters in 1 day since I freaking sucked at putting up the last one.

Sorry about that.

But next chapter will most defiantly be about the big battle in Stormwind.

Enjoy D

BTW

i felt the need to name this chapter and the next, im not sur eif there will be more than 2 parts but, i still felt the need to name it P


	18. The Battle for Stormwind p 2

Ruanae woke up to the loudest bang she had ever heard

Ruanae woke up to the loudest bang she had ever heard. It rang through the city, sweeping over every person, consuming their ears and bringing terror to their faces. It sounded again. Around a three second pause and then again.

Ruanae jumped up at the second bang and grabbed the two swords that lay on the ground near her. She quickly wielded them properly before running to the hallway that led out. She paused. Should she go?

Tahlian jumped up when the first bang had rung through the city. Every instinct told him to run across the city and get to Ruanae and run the hell out of there, but he had a job to do. He was protecting the Mage's area now and was on the bridge near it.

He quickly drew a bow and knocked an arrow in it, not leaving his spot and did a 360 of the area. All clear. He aimed an arrow to the stone archway that connected the area with the Trade District. At any moment an Undead could run through it and he would be ready.

Giliath woke the troops at the crack of dawn. A plan had erupted in his head not to long ago, and they would need to work hard for some time if it would be carried out in total stealth.

Half of the army followed behind him as they found the largest and easiest tree that could be carried by the army and chopped it down. Five mages helped carry the tree down slowly, causing no noise.

Chopping off the limbs of the tree, they shaped it to a perfect size that could easily break down the doors of Stormwind and the army could handle.

They finished and rested a bit before carrying it down the road. Guards on top of the gate scrambled away, yelling at the top of their voices. They ignored them.

Walking straight up to the doors, they ran at it and hit against it. Not much happened. They tried it again. It gave a small crack. A third time, it came open a bit. They kept ramming the gates until they finally burst open. Dropping the huge tree, the army ran inside, war cries heard.

Tahlian heard the guards yelling and knew that the time had come. The battle had started. The fight for survival had just begun.

Looking down at the Trade District, a single guard stood on the roof with a large gun in hand. He watched at the Undead ran in through the gate and tore apart the few guards stationed there.

He gulped.

The Alliance guards came rushing forward, making an attack on the Undead. Mages cats frost, Fire, and Arcane Magic at the soldiers from either side, hunters ordering their pets forward, arrows sticking out of corpses.

They swiped and slashed. They stabbed and cut at each other from hand to hand combat.

The guard up on the roof came to his senses. He shook his head and aimed at an unlucky target, and fired the gun.

Ruanae simply stood there. After a moment people began to scream and the mages ran forward, conjuring portals. People shoved each other aside and ran to get there first. Guards helped grab people and shove them through the portals.

"MA'AM!" a guard yelled, grabbing Ruanae's arm, "You need to get into the portal!" and he began to lead her to the Darnassus portal.

"Let go of me! My love is out there, fighting for his goddamn life! I'm not leaving him!" she screamed at him and burst out of his grip. She ran through the crowd with difficulty, the guard shouting after her to not go outside. She ignored him.

After all, she always ran blindly into danger. This was just on a larger scale.

It was who she was. And she would never change that.

Giliath watched as his troops charged forward, hungry for pride and honor. They yelled as they saw the first couple of victims and killed them. Giliath stayed behind at the gates and watched Dalen and Ren run in behind them.

Giliath sighed. He looked up to the sky. It was gray, full of storm clouds. It would pour soon.

And it would defiantly set the mood.

He quietly drew his sword. He looked at the jewels crafted into it. He looked at the blood stains of the innocent victims that he had slain. The ones that had charged at him at a first glance. The ones he had been ordered to eliminate.

He rubbed a bit of dirt off of his new fancy armour. At least look like a leader if you are going into battle.

"GILIATH!" Dalen yelled from across the bridge, "COMMON!"

Giliath sighed. This was it. He ran forward, following behind Dalen.

By now the entire city was swarmed with undead. You would run into at least five in every district. They seemed to just disappear and then jump out at you when you least expected it.

They traveled in groups. It was impossible to solo a single one. You needed a group of your own to make sure you don't enter a blood bath.

If you walked around Stormwind right about now, you would see small groups engaged in combat throughout the entire city. Countless bodies laid on the stone streets, battle cries and the clashing of medal everywhere you went.

It was a horrifying sight.

Ruanae ran out of Stormwind keep to see Undead marching to her. There were at least five of them. She began to panic, searching around her for something of use.

They were nearly upon her when she got a wicked idea. She jumped as high as she could, soaring over them, making sure she thrashed at the visible necks leaving 2 Undead screaming in pain as she ran in the opposite direction. She had to find Tahlian soon.

All he heard was himself panting and the clash of swords hitting stone as Tahlian ran around in his cat form, Undead slashing and missing him, hitting the stone ground instead.

He ran in a circle around one and jumped right on his back. He sunk his jaws deep into it's neck and the Undead yelled out and thrashed at him, trying to get him off. He just held on tighter and jumped off just as another Undead stuck his ally with his axe, where Tahlian just jumped off of.

Spitting blood from his mouth he growled at the dead man. The Undead, shock wearing off of him, took his axe from his ally and charged at him, rage in his eyes. Tahlian simply stood there, waiting for him to get closer.

When he was around five feet from him, he dove under the huge axe and thrashed at his ankles, slipping in between his legs and trotting back on the other side of the bridge, looking behind him to see the Undead on the ground.

He ran back to him, grabbed his axe with his mouth and threw it over the edge and into the water. Growling at him again he changed into a bird and flew off, taking in the city.

It was impossible to see someone who was not fighting off the gruesome race. He saw dead and decay around him and he closed his bird eyes, unwilling to see more.

Terrible pain washed over his right wing and his eyes whipped open and he screeched in pain.

Moving the wing hurt terribly and he looked at it as he lost altitude, plummeting down to the ground. Blood drops dripped from a bullet shot and he glared at the ground to see a confused guard on the roof looking at him. He could have very well been a Taruen, so he understood while the guard shot at him. At least he aimed for his wing, not his head.

Feeling himself slip from his bird form he looked back at himself to see the ground coming up at him. In his elf form, he would surly splat.

Taking up any energy that was left of him, he managed to get into cat form.

After all, cats always land on their feet.

The guard was horrified when he saw the bird turned out of be an Elf. Of course he didn't know that then, but he mentally punched himself in the nose. Jumping off the roof, he landed away from the battle taking place in the Trade District and ran to the spot he saw the elf fall.

When he turned the corner, near the inn he saw the elf in cat form, laying on his back eyes shut. Rushing over to him, the dwarf kneeled by him and watched as the elf slowly changed back into an elf.

Mournfully, he saw his bullet in his shoulder bleeding dearly. The elf opened his eyes and looked around. Spotting the dwarf guard, he spoke.

"What just happened?" he asked confused sitting up, obviously in pain. He looked at his shoulder and murmured a spell. Green magic swirled around his in small ribbons, dancing around him for a couple of moments until they each went into the wound on his shoulder. A small clank on the ground told him the bullet came out.

"Aye. I shot at ya; not knowing you was an Elf. I'm sorry, lad. I'll get ya out of here." He said, trying to help him.

"No, I am here until the battle is over. Rua – a friend might come." He said in a rush and he ran back out, changing into a huge bear as he did.

The dwarf shook his head.

"Night Elves." He murmured and climbed back onto the roof, and continued to shoot at the big battle forming.

Ruanae ran into Old Town. She met a small battle consisting of two humans, on a mage and one a Warrior, an a gnome Warlock. They were facing what seemed to be a Undead Priest, Warrior, and a _Warlock_.

A flashback came back over her of the torture. She looked back at the Warlock to see she looked quite deadly indeed. Gulping, she ran in the battle.

Instantly parrying an attack by the Warrior by making an X with her two swords, she began to counter attack. She ducked a Smite spell and then lashed out at the Priest, who ran back a little and letting the Warrior step between her and Ruanae.

Gritting her teeth, she saw a Frost Bolt rush past her and hit the Warrior straight in the chest. Gasping, the Undead looked stunned for a moment while the human Warrior jumped forward, seeing an opening, and ending him.

The gnome warlock shot a single Shadow Bolt at the Priest and she was done with. But, the Undead Warlock was one step ahead of him. She had a horrible smile on as she threw down what seemed to be a green stone and the gnome yelled.

"TAKE COVER!" he screamed and ran in the opposite direction. The Warrior followed behind him. Ruanae, confused, looked up to see a flaming green and slightly yellow ball of rock hurdling to her. Screaming, she bolted. She was slightly to late, and the force of the Inferal threw her through the air but not making a sound as it touch the ground.

Landing hard on the ground, Ruanae slowly looked up in a daze and saw the Inferal slowly rise, looking down at his Master.

Tahlian saw nobody in the Mage's District. He was sure that some Undead were cowering from him, but he had no time to find them now. Quickly changing into a bird he soared around, landing right on an Undead's head in the Trade District and taking care to scratch it up before taking off again.

He could here people shouting. He ignored it. A scream got his attention. It sounded far to familiar.

Ruanae. She had come back! He quickly increased his speed to the east; she was probably in Old Town. Looking in the sky, his eyes grew wide. An Inferal was heading straight to Old Town. Summoned by a Warlock.

Ruanae.

Giliath gave a grunt as a polarm came whishing past his head. Quickly finishing off the silly female human, he rushed off to the Trade District. He had ordered everyone to go there for a big battle and then hopefully storm the rest of the city.

He also wanted them together; he had lost at least half of his men so far.

And woman, of course.

As he ran in, he smiled at the medium sized battle taking place. He had no idea why he was so against the attack, fighting here felt great. He felt like a real Undead.

Ha. Was this the reason Undead were made? To slay people?

Well, he was enjoying himself now and nothing could ruin that.

Except for two Night Elves. But he seriously doubted they would be here.

First, he would feel guilty for not capturing them when he had the chance.

Second, he didn't know if he could face them knowing he was the one who slew there parents. Their faces still haunted his dreams; of all the child's faces THEY were the ones that haunted him.

He yelled out into the battle and his army seemed to grow a bit more powerful from his yell, encouraged by it. He smiled as he ran up and punted a small gnome warlock into next Thursday. God, they were so small.

Ruanae felt to weak to move as she looked up at the Inferal. The Warlock looked at her with an evil glint in her eye. She walked over to her, the Inferal at her side all along, and placed a hand on her forehead. Searing pain entered her mind at the Undead's touch. She screamed, and knocked the hand from her, she quickly stood up and clutched her head. The pain did not stop, if anything, strengthened. She screamed louder and fell to her knees.

It weakened a bit, enough for her to open her watering eyes to see the warlock cast a spell that was pure green. It came from her hand and right into Ruanae, making a thick line from the Undead's hand to her.

She felt herself very slowly weaken.

Just as she began to fight for breath, it stopped all at once. She was on her hands and knees and slowly lifted her head to see a bird attacking the Undead's head. The Undead was yelling and waving her hands at the bird, trying to get it away.

It didn't stop. But, she recognized the bird. It was Tahlian. Her breathe caught up in her mouth, happiness sweeping through her at the thought of him helping her. She was so happy; she didn't realize the Warlock order the Inferal to attack her.

The Inferal stared right at his target. He had one order: Kill. And Ruanae knew damn well that was their specialty. She was to weak to move, and Tahlian was busy with the Warlock. She was as good as crushed.

The Inferal made it's way over to Ruanae. It raised one of its huge rock arms above it's head. Ruanae closed her eyes, wanting the pain to come quick.

A/N OOOHHH… cliffy. Wow people, you guys got to REVIEW! It's what keeps me going, people! I got, 16. can't I at least get like 20? Please? I SHALL NOT GIVE THE NEXT CHAPTER TILL I GET MORE REVIEWS MUHAHAHAHA!


	19. The Battle for Stormwind p 3

Ruanae closed her eyes, wanting the pain to come quick

It never came. The next thing she knew, somebody or something crashed into her side, sending her flying to the opening to the canals. She was slightly angled, causing her to crash into the stone. She fell limp, not knowing who her savior was or what happened to them.

* * *

_She felt the Night Elf Priest walk away from her bedside and the Paladin as well. She was alone in the small room. Tears were still streaming down her face._

_She tried to think more about the attack. She remembered Tahlian restraining her, trying to protect her. But when a sword was aimed at her, he ran away into the wild. He had an unusual glint in his eyes when he melted into cat form though. Like they were not Tahlian's gold glowing eyes. They were blacker, like the cat was supposed to be like. _

_Confusing herself, she shook her head and thought about the Undead. They didn't care about who they killed; who might have been torn by the losses or what might be the consequence. Except, what was up with that other Undead? He just let her go. That was totally not Undead-like. She remembered the haunted look in his face._

_She sighed. She heard hushed voices outside of the room, her elfish ears picked up the conversation perfectly even if she didn't understand most of what they were saying._

"_No! - - - - - - - lost - - - - because - - -- - ! She - - - - - - go - - - - - - - - -! " _

"_Why - - - - -?" _

"_She - - - - young! She - - - - hurt!"_

_Then two sets of footsteps came into the room. She didn't come out from under the sheets. _

"_Honey?" The Night Elf asked._

_No reply. _

"_Honey, I know you are hurt. I completely understand but hiding from the rest of the world wont do any good."_

_Ruanae raised herself and plopped her head onto the pillow. She looked at the Paladin and then to the Priest. _

"_Ruanae." She said, giving a small smile before it turned back into a sad frown. _

_The Elf smiled at her. "Hi, Ruanae. My name is Kaeth. I am one of the Priestess of Stormwind. Do you know any Common?" _

"_A bit. My parents taught me some before…" she trailed off. _

_The Night Elf smiled sadly. "Well, we better get you something to eat and teach you more about Common, otherwise you will find life quite difficult in a place where everyone speaks it." _

Tahlian was to busy attacking the Undead to notice the Inferal walk to Ruanae. He did notice when he raised his arm to crush her.

He sped away from the Undead, leaving her to fall and slowly die of the wounds he created. Just as the Inferal looked like he was going to smash, he was a huge pussycat and rammed into Ruanae, causing her to fly in the air and crash into the stone archway. He winced when she went limp.

Looking up he saw a giant rock arm coming straight at him. His eyes widened. Darting under its legs, he rushed behind him and jumped up, clawing at the rock back only managing to create a handhold in it. The Inferal didn't seem to notice the dent in it's back, but was now looking around to the cat.

Tahlian would have smiled if cats were not unable to smile. He clawed his way up the demon's back. He was amazed that the Inferal didn't feel a thing. Soon, he managed to climb around on the demon's shoulders. He began to sneak from here otherwise the Demon might notice a familiar cat that was unusually close to his face.

Lodging himself in between his shoulder blades, he dug his back feet into the rock, the Inferal still not making any sign that he knew that Tahlian was there. Shaking his head, he concentrated. How should he bring down a 50 ton giant Inferal that is made out of rock? Claw out it's vision and bring it to the battle forming and set it loose on the Undead, of course.

In no time at all, he found himself clawing at the Inferal's face. It was out the ugliest most terrifying roar/yell Tahlian had ever heard, but he kept going slashing and clawing at where the eyes would be.

Soon, the Inferal began to stagger around. Knowing the damage was done, Tahlian jumped off him and landed on the ground in Elf form. Calling to his nature powers, he summoned giant roots from the ground. They grabbed at the Inferal's hands and waist, holding him in place.

Tahlian took a deep breath. Muttering under his breath, the roots began to move and pulled the Inferal to him. He began to back up and backed up onto the bridge, connecting Old Town and Trade District together. He frowned at the thought of him leaving Ruanae behind like that. Anyone could have gotten to her. But, he would run back and get her and take her to safety when he let loose this Inferal.

He was arriving on the scene. And when you saw a Druid struggling with a blind Inferal, you watched of course. No, you didn't RUN like the SMART thing to do. Nearly all of the Undead looked at the Inferal. The Alliance ran like there was the entire Legion Army behind them.

Tahlian looked behind him to see Undead looking at the Inferal. They were probably not running because they knew that one of them brought an Inferal Stone with them. He smirked. They were about to get a nasty surprise.

He released the Inferal from the roots binding it to the ground, melted into his bird form, and flew into the air. He watched as the Inferal walked around blindly, crushing a few Undead. The Undead realizing that it had no idea what it was doing, quickly rushed to end the Demon or it might kill them all.

The Demon felt them trying to bring him down, swords axes and spells shooting at him and it made him angry. He hit the ground in front of him, attacking anything he could get.

A larger frost bolt hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back a few feet. He stumbled a bit and crashed into the Auction House leaving a gaping hole in it's roof.

Tahlian didn't stay to see the rest of the action, but he knew that the Undead were nothing against that huge rock pile. He had to find Ruanae.

* * *

Giliath bolted the moment he saw the Inferal, heading into Old Town. He didn't know why, but he had a bad feeling about it. Running off to the left, he turned a corner and stopped in his tracks. There, laying limp against the stone wall of the archway, was the female Elf.

He was stunned. He nervously looked around to see if anyone was around him, seeing nobody, he slowly walked up to her.

She appeared to be in a trance. She appeared to be weakened, by what he could only assume the warlock's doing since he jumped over her corpse. She probably banged her head on the stone. A small trickle of blood came from behind her head. Unconscious no doubt.

He looked around to see if that male Elf was going to come charging out at him suddenly. When he saw no sign of anybody, he looked back at her. She needed help immediately by the looks of it or she would die.

Helping an Alliance would be a sign or a traitor in the Horde. Helping one would cause anybody in the Horde to attack you on sight, all of your honor stripped from you.

Giliath sighed. He carefully picked the Elf up and slung her over his shoulder, and ran to the Dwarven District. Nobody should be in there.

* * *

Tahlian soared into Old Town. He looked over to where he left Ruanae. She wasn't there. Fear struck him across the face as he dove down to see nothing where she was lying before.

Landing, he looked around. No sign of anything. No struggle. No note. Ha, why would she leave a note? She probably just woke up, and walked away. The problem was, she was probably very weak on her own right now. Finding her was the only thing he was concentrated on.

He jumped back into the air and looked around. He couldn't see anything. He would check Stormwind Keep. If she were smart, she would have tried to make her way back to the Keep and find a healer. He dove in the direction and landed as an elf and ran up the long hallway. The place was deserted except for some mages and priests.

"Have you seen another elf here recently? Had amour and two long swords, blue hair?" he asked quickly.

"No, I'm sorry. Here, let me heal you." The priest said, walking over to him and the woman touched his forehead and murmured a few words and he felt very hot, then cool.

"Thank you. If you see her, could you tell her Tahlian is looking for her and to stay here until he comes back? Her name is Ruanae if she says so." He told them, and ran back out.

When he was outside, he let the worry out and frowned. Melting into a bird, he set of to the Dwarven District.

* * *

Giliath set the Elf inside the hunter's house. He knew this because a bear skin lay on the floor as a mat and several hunter books lay around. He placed her in a chair and nervously walked up and down.

If he just left her here, he would be good to go and act like he never even saw her.

If he helped her, she would probably live and he would be banished from the Horde.

He promised himself that he would take up the chance if needed be to abandon the Horde if someone needed him that was innocent.

He sighed. Rushing outside he set out to find some cloth and medical supplies.

When he got back, his arms were full of silk cloth, some healing potions, a single mana potion, and a thick blanket.

He set to work, stripping the cloth and wrapping it around the wound on her head. At a single touch of her right arm, he knew It was broken by how stiff it was. He made a makeshift sling and put it on her arm and around her neck.

He took out the mana potion and held it to her mouth. He set her head back and poured it in. She swallowed. He took the smallest red potion and fed it to her. He saw her eyes flicker a bit.

He gave her the bigger one. She opened her eyes. She looked all around the room. She looked right at him. She screamed, and jumped up and gave out a yell when she moved her right arm. She clutched it to see it in a sling, hanging around her stomach.

She slowly raised her head to him, a confused expression on her face.

"Giliath." He said pointing to himself. She glared at him, saying something he didn't understand but she spat it at him, so he knew it probably was not a 'Thanks for saving my life!'.

He sighed. He took his sword from his belt. The Elf back up to the wall. He raised an arm up, showing he didn't mean her harm and he placed the blade on the ground, and slid it to her. She made to hesitation to grab it and point it at him.

She slowly walked up to him, not taking her eyes off his the sword still pointed at him. She hissed something at him and he had to jump out of the way to avoid death from the little Elf he saved.

"I saved you!" he yelled, even though she couldn't understand him. He tried to act it out, but it just made the Elf angrier.

She jumped at him again, but this time he was ready. He dodged the sword quickly, but slid his foot quickly and tripped her onto the floor. She fell with a thud and a gasp.

"RUANAE!" somebody yelled from behind him. He whirled around to see the male Elf looking at him with murderous eyes.

* * *

Tahlian soared to the Dwarven District and landed as himself on the road. He heard yelling to the east. He quickly ran around the bend and saw a struggle inside a small house meant for hunter training. He darted inside to see an Undead with fancy armour knock Ruanae off her feet and land on the wooden floor with a loud thud and she gasped in pain.

"RUANAE!" he roared. He looked at the Undead with murderous glint in his eyes.

"Tahlian?" Ruanae whispered from on the floor, looking up at him tears of joy in her eyes, "Oh, Tahlian, you are here!" she cried.

"How dare you, you damn monster!" he yelled at the Undead. The Undead seemed to be confused and mad at the same time. He spoke in Orcish, but he didn't understand it.

"DIE!" he yelled and he melted into a growling cat. He pounced at him, knocking him off his feet. The Undead scrambled up and ran to Ruanae, and grabbed his sword from her.

Tahlian growled again and jumped up to meet the sword. He felt it cut the side of his face, but he ignored the pain and the gasp from Ruanae. He clawed at the Undead, scratching at his shoulder armour making a nice dent into it and making a deep cut in his cheek. He jumped back out and dove behind the Undead, raking his back before the Undead knew what was happening.

The Undead man whirled around and stabbed into the floor, Tahlian dodging it. He scratched at his ankle, but he was to well protected. All he was causing was dents. Even though he knew they were painful, it didn't seem to be enough.

He couldn't cast his roots inside, but if he could take him outside…

He growled again and sprinted outside but keeping Ruanae in sight. He turned into an Elf and watched as the Undead rushed outside, a look on his face as if he was not enjoying himself at all.

He murmured some words and the next thing the Undead knew, roots came up from under him, attaching themselves to his feet, arms, and waist and pulling him down to the ground.

Tahlian rushed up and ripped his sword from his hands. He glared at him, and threw the weapon as far as he could. He ran back inside to find Ruanae wincing as she tended to her arm.

"Are you alright, Rua?" he asked, looking into her eyes. She looked up, mournfully.

"My arm feels like it was broken in two." She said softly, trying not to cry. Tahlian looked down to the sling.

"Who made the sling?" he asked as he removed it to tend to her arm.

"I'm not sure." She gasped, "I woke up in here with the Undead trying to talk to me."

Tahlian felt along her arm, gently prodding it here and there.

"It seems like a clean break." He noted with a frown, "I'm so sorry, if I didn't ram into you like that – "

"I probably would be dead." She said softly, looking at him while he examined her arm.

"Alright, I'll take a shot at it. But I am going to bring you to another healer in the Stormwind Keep, just to make sure." He said.

He took a deep breath. Gently, he placed a hand on her arm. She winced but didn't say anything, looking straight at him. He muttered under his breath, and his hand glowed green. The green slowly made it's way off of his hand and onto her arm. It spread until her whole arm glowed and then sunk in.

She sighed with relief as the glow went away.

"Ah, that feels much better." She said with a smile, moving her arm up and down. She looked at Tahlian with a smile.

He smiled softly at her, "Common, we have to either bring him to the Stockade, or slay him on the spot."

Ruanae nervously looked at the struggling Undead outside, "I don't know. I think he was the one that helped me." She said nervously.

Tahlian stared at her. It was impossible. Considering him, he seemed well respected. He might even be the one that led the attack. Why would he help Ruanae?

"Why would an Undead help anybody from the Alliance?" he asked

"I don't know, but all I can say is that he looks familiar. I-I think he might have been the one that let me go in the attack on Southshore." She said quietly.

Tahlian stiffened. He never liked talking about the attack.

"That's impossible. We were young then, anybody that was an adult then is dead by now."

"Well, if you think about it, he IS already dead…" she said slowly. Tahlian thought. She had a point.

"Do Undead even age?" he asked.

"I… I don't know." She said, confused. Tahlian shrugged.

"So, what do you want to do with him?" he asked

"Spare his life. Just, put him in the Stockade. I owe him that much." Ruanae said quietly. Tahlian nodded. He held a hand out to her and she smiled and took it. He helped her off the floor and headed outside.

"I don't know about you, but he seems to be the ringleader of this attack." Ruanae said, grabbing the Undead and putting her sword to his neck, incase he tried to run off.

"Yea, he seems like it." They looked at one another. Both of their faces slowly grew identical smiles.

* * *

"STOP!!" Ruanae screamed into the battle

"STOP YOUR GOD DAMN FIGHTING!" Tahlian yelled into the battle.

Slowly, everyone stopped trying to kill each other and looked in amazement at the couple. Tahlian had Ruanae's sword to Giliath's throat, a hand on his shoulder as he stood behind him and Ruanae had her other sword pointed at his head, standing next to him.

There was several yells and a couple gasps from some Undead as they saw him.

Then two Undead wearing fancy armour also, but not as magnificent as Giliath's, yelled something at them. They were glaring at them.

Ruanae made a motion, showing them to each put their swords down. The two of them looked at each other. Reluctantly, each other them threw their swords to the ground. They yelled behind them and the rest of them threw their weapons down.

"Now, everyone that can understand me, which means everyone except these Undead, I want you to grab the nearest Undead and restrain them." Tahlian said.

Every single Elf, Human, Dwarf, Gnome, and Draenei shot out at once and in the next moment every single one of the Undead were struggling in the Alliance's grip.

The two Undead in front of them were each being held by two human warriors. Each man was struggling as they tried to get out of their grip.

"Lead them to the Stockade." Ruanae yelled.

The next hour was one of the craziest of Ruanae's life. They led what was left of the Undead army into the Stockade. They put each one of the ringleaders (since they had the fanciest armour) in separate cells, away from everyone else.

They left the prison and Ruanae overheard a head guard talking about plans for executions.

* * *

Ruanae found herself helping clean up the city. She was picking up wood, stones and any other rubble and throwing them in a big pile in the Trade District. They planned on setting off bon fires in each of the Districts, since there was no place to put the trash and it was a lot easier to take care of ash then the trash that it used to be.

Ruanae took another loose brick and piled it around the rubble, to keep the bon fire from spreading. She felt somebody place a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Tahlian looking at her as if all he could see was she. He was giving her a gentle smile.

"Tahlian?" she said

He nodded. She didn't know why, and she didn't care, but the next thing she knew she was crying in his arms. She wept not only from this battle, but from all the pain she had gone through. All the people she had lost. All the battle scars, all the tears she had ever held back were pouring down her cheek and soaking Tahlian's armour.

* * *

It was night by the time that the roads were finally cleared. The houses and the shops were damaged, but they would take care of that later. News had spread quickly of the attack, and travelers were pouring into the city with supplies.

But that would wait until tomorrow. Everyone in the city was crowed in one area of the District they were in. The tiny King was holding a torch and smiling to the crowd. He lifted the torch to the pile and it caught aflame.

The crowd watched as the flames grew on the bon fire. The flames crackled and danced before their eyes. Sparks lifted into the air, each one disappearing before they were lifted out of sight.

Around the front of the crowd were two Night Elves. The female was smiling at the fire, her head resting on the male's shoulder. His arm was wrapped around her waist, he also looking into the flames.

All was well. Until tomorrow, everyone could sleep in peace in the damaged city.

* * *

A/N god I loved writing this chapter. I didn't really know what to do at some points, but I think it turned out OK.

And I'm so sorry for the page breaks, I was putting them in the Microsoft pages I used, but they didn't show up on FF. I'll try to add them in! Thanks for letting me know!

And ty 4 that last review, it just put a huge smile on my face!

i want at least three more reviews till i give the next chapter! more than that and i will type up the next one faster


	20. Chapter 20

Tahlian woke up with a moan

Tahlian woke up with a moan. He ached all over, his sore muscles unwilling to move. He was lying on a bed in the inn in the Trade District. He opened his eyes to see Ruanae lying next to him, her head on his shoulder with a single arm draped over her chest as she slept.

He used his free arm to stifle a yawn that came, his other arm resting on Ruanae's back. He gently shook her awake and she groaned.

"Wake up, sleepy head." He said teasingly.

She groaned again and hid her face in his hair, blocking out the light. "Couple more minutes." Came a muffled voice.

"Aw, don't want to be a cleaner today? How much fun we will have, aching from yesterday while we are dead tired? I'm taking you down with me, Rua!" he said sarcastically as he got up, leaving Ruanae to groan as the light hit her eyes as she lay on top of the covers.

"Must we wake up so early?" she complained as she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Half the city is already out there." He noted as voices were heard outside. "Come." He said, holding out a hand to her. She took it grumpily and let him lead her outside.

Clean up was an understatement. It was more like, put the ash from last night in a big pile, pick up any other debris and put it in another pile, go to an area that needs fixing, grab a hammer, grab some supplies, and get to work.

Ruanae cursed in her native tongue as she hit her thumb yet again with the hammer. She wasn't cut out for this kind of stuff.

Tahlian smirked and spoke in Darnassian also. "Hurt yourself yet again, love?" he said with a laugh as he made his way over from on top of the Auction House roof that they were repairing.

"Yes, this is the worst work I have probably had to do in my life, which is saying something." She exclaimed.

Tahlian laughed as he looked at her thumb. He had a small bruise forming on the side on it.

"You will live." He said

"KISS IT!" she said, jokingly, sticking her thumb out in front of his face.

Tahlian sighed. Life with Ruanae should be interesting.

* * *

_He was running. His wild eyes were darting about as he sprinted though the bushes and trees._

_Finally, he stopped only to fall right onto his side, gasping for air. He looked down at himself to see his feet scratched and bleeding. He instinctively looked around for the nearest clean water source. Nothing._

_He sighed as he laid down under a tree and fell asleep._

_He woke up at night, his cat vision letting him see almost perfectly in the moonlight. He got up, ignoring his feet, and began to walk. _

_He tried to think. Tried to think about where he was, what he was doing. Nothing came to him. _

_When he thought to hard, all he saw was a flash of a memory of a screaming girl and him running, falling, and tumbling down a hill hitting his head on the way down and waking up and darting off. _

_The cat shook his head. He realized he was hungry. It frowned. How did he get food again? He was obviously some sort of cat thing, therefore his parents must have taught him hunting skills. _

_Nothing came to him. He shrugged it off and began to look around for a night animal. His cat vision let him see a rabbit around ten feet from him._

_He crouched instantly. Realizing that he was no longer under control of himself as his body began to prowl around the area the rabbit was in, he sat back and watched himself tackle the rabbit._

_Coming back into control, he looked down at the dead rabbit with distaste. _

_Something told him this wasn't what he was used to eating. But, as no feast came shooting out of the sky, it looked like this was dinner._

_Closing his eyes, hoping it tasted like the elfish bread (whatever that was), he slowly leaned down to satisfy him hunger._

_Disgusted as he finished, he spat out what was in his mouth. He had enough for now. _

_Running away, his instincts told him to find more food. Hissing at himself, he wondered why he needed more when he was full. He shrugged it off, he guessed he was supposed to listen to these random thoughts._

_He set off to find another unlucky animal. He probably should find a place to make a home to store this extra food, and have a place to sleep at night._

_It was a week later. The cat dragged in a deer into it's small cave. It was on the bottom of a hill near a town. He dug into the hill for a couple days, making a small hole big enough for him to get in and out easily and made it wider inside, having a good sized area to store his food and a place next to it to sleep._

_It was quite comfy for a cat. He had a bit of trouble getting the deer inside, but managed. He tossed it over to the rabbit and bird he had. _

_That was his life. How interesting. Sleep, and hunt. Stay alive, attack all who threatened him. _

_But, deep inside, he felt like he was more than just some cat trying to live. He felt like he was supposed to do something else. And eat better than this, although he had gotten a bit more used to it but was still disgusted. _

_He was nearly always on autopilot of himself now. He sat back and watched as he walked around and made kills, and surviving attacks from the mountain lions. _

_He walked back out of the little cave. Instantly he was crouched down. He had a bad feeling. _

_Looking around, he saw nothing. _

_Out of nowhere, a net came whizzing down on top of him from below. He gave out a roar. _

* * *

"Tahlian?" Ruanae asked again, waving a hand in front of his face. He seemed to come out of his trance. She was sitting on a chair next to him in the Old Town inn.

"Huh?" he asked, shaking his head looking a bit sick.

"I was asking you what we should do when the city is fixed." She said. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to go to Darnassus, look at everything inside again. She wanted to go back to Dolonaar and visit her old home. She wanted to stay there, and live a life with Tahlian there. She wanted to join the Elf Guards, and protect her homeland.

"I'm not sure." He said, rubbing his eyes and resting an elbow on the table, his old hand using his fork to play with the food on his plate. "I want what will be best for both of us." He said truthfully, looking up at her with kind eyes. "I don't care what will happen, as long as you and me are both happy with it."

She nodded slowly at him. That was probably one of the most truthful things he had ever said. She smiled at him. "Lets take this one step at a time then. I don't want to plan to far ahead, who knows what will happen?" she laughed. Tahlian laughed also.

An hour past when an old man came walking in and sat down in the center of the room, eyes turned to him as he ordered a small glass of ale. He looked around at the people in the inn when he got the drink.

The inn had gone silent. The old man was called Old Jeffery. The old man had been a Paladin in the war in Outland. Grave injuries had come to him, and aged him greatly.

"So there I was…" he said in his story telling voice. He was known for telling brilliant tales about Outlands. He had traveled all over, and knew it like the back of his hand. "Me and a friend of mine, good friend he was, we were traveling to Nagrand.

"You youngsters have never seen anything like it." He said, his eyes misting over a bit as memories past over them. "The grass is greener than any blade here. The sky is bluer than anything you could imagine. I'd swear that I was in the Emerald Dream if I knew I wasn't.

"Flying platforms of pure earth float through the cloudless skies. Trees are found on some, while others waterfalls fall from within.

"When you fly on a tamed bird, you can soar around jumping from the highest point, diving down watching as whirls of green blue and brown confuse your vision. At the last moment, your bird will sweep upwards and everything suddenly becomes clear with a bang.

"You see the trees, the Elekk, the clefthoofs, the grazel, and all of the animals as you soar over. You see the Draenei town, full of purple and blue crystals while sleeping animals doze in the shade of the stables. The inn is nearly always busy, filling up with adventurers and towns folks.

"You youngsters have never seen anything like Nagrand, and I'll tell you something else." Old Jeffery said, finishing off his third ale. "You will never see anything else like it." And his head slipped and fell onto his shoulder, his chest heaving up and down in his sleep.

Tahlian and Ruanae both watched for a moment as two men gently carried Old Jeffery between them to his room.

Ruanae looked at Tahlian.

"NO." Tahlian stated firmly.

"Don't worry," Ruanae said with a smile, looking at him with fond eyes. "That will be another adventure."

* * *

A/N (cries) (tear) that's the end… DON'T WORRY. I will have an epilogue (I think that's how u spell it. Lol.) its not going to be in anybody's POV, but I will explain everything than I am thinking about.

I CAN extend it if I get more REVIEWS……………

But, I will probably just make another story for it.

I'm planning on making two other storys about this already! One of them is going to be about what happened to Ruanae and Tahlian after the attack on Southshore.

The other is going to be after I finish that one, about battles Ruanae has been in up until the AV battle. Its not gonna be all about them, like some chapters might be what happened before a battle and some might be after one.

I need help with titles for them. HELP ME OUT! (smile)

THANK you EVERYONE for all of your reviews! I have to say, Andrien is one of my best reviewers and I am so SO happy with your reviews! Thank you Andrien!

And btw, I have to give some credit off here, one of my WoW friends, Tormund, said; "So there I was…" just to give him some credit there. It was really funny when he said it. But that's a long story; I wont go on cuz this A/N is WAY to long atm lol.


	21. Epilogue

Ruanae and Tahlian both agreed that going back to their homeland would be a good start

Ruanae and Tahlian both agreed that going back to their homeland would be a good start. They traveled far enough for now, and they would have to wait some time before the next. They had to let their battle wounds heal. Their scars disappear.

They were recognized for their bravery during the Battle for Stormwind and honored with few others. They were given enough money to last them awhile, but they planned to use is wisely.

Ruanae had remembered that she used to keep a journal. She bought a new one.

_Hi. I bought a new journal today, so I'm going to be keeping track of some events that will take place in my life for now on. They will only be important. So, I'll call this book my Special Events Book! Ha, cheesy title, no? Well, Tahlian and me have decided to go back to Dolonaar for now, so, that's a special event._

_I wonder if any of my other friends there. I bet they are wondering what ever happened to me. I hope nobody was hurt, or worse. What if there was an attack? No, I'm just stressing myself now. We would have known if that happened. _

_Well, I'm not sure what else to write now. So, until next time oh Special Events Book._

_Ruanae_

Traveling to the Wetlands was no problem. They took the gryphon out of Stormwind and landed in the Wetlands around two hours later.

The boat ride was interesting. A man got drunk on the boat, and tried flirting with Ruanae.

He ended up with a black eye and two broken ribs, to Tahlian's pleasure as he let Ruanae look over his ripped knuckles, then letting him no that it was good to heal.

Around a week, seasick, laughter, arguments, forgiveness, and some deep emotions later, they landed in the Darkshore dock, walking off the boat hand in hand relived for solid ground.

Taking the hippogriff to the island they called home, it took around ten minutes to get across the small stretch of sea separating the mainland from Darnassus.

As they walked through the purple portal, they smiled brilliantly at the familiar city around them.

The great big tree in the center of Darnassus was always a site to see. The stone and wooden buildings were as they remembered, beautiful and proud standing there.

They bought two armoured Mist Sabers while they were there. Misty and Clucky (Ruanae named Clucky, being sad that Clucky the chicken ran away when she ran out of birdseed).

Tahlian had laughed for a while when he heard the name she chose.

As they rode upon the walking sabers, the small town came in view. They looked at each other with small smiles.

They were home.

Weeks later, they finally settled into Ruanae's old home. Nobody had touched Tahlian's house either, but since Ruanae's was a bit bigger they decided on hers, but keeping the other house as well.

_Hi again, Ruanae writing. We just got to Dolonaar a couple weeks ago. Trust me, the time it took to get here was longer than I thought, but a lot more interesting than I thought to._

_We finally settled down. Got all the furniture the way that we want, got enough food, yada yada yada. Tahlian and me also made a makeshift stable in the back. It's basically just a small roof coming from the house and two little sections for Misty and Clucky._

_I love that name. Nobody understands the uniqueness of it. I mean, how many people do you see walking around with the name Clucky? I mean, be different for once!_

_Tahlian agrees with me, although I heard him murmuring about it yesterday on his way out the door, getting Misty and riding to Darnassus to find us jobs. _

_I'm not sure I'll get a job just yet. I'm not sure why, I have a bad feeling about it. _

_Write later, Special Events Book._

Having settled in, Tahlian found himself a job as a cook. Ruanae told him she didn't want a job yet, and although Tahlian was confused at first, he trusted Ruanae to decide.

It was around a year later when Ruanae wrote in her journal again.

Hi. I haven't wrote for a long time. So much has happened! Well, first off ill start with the not so big changes. My hair grew. Ha. Its all the way down my back now, I like it this way.

_Another thing is that me and Tahlian are starting to think about family. The topic only came up a few times during dinner or during Tahlian's days off, but I think he would like a son to teach in the ways of the druid. _

_  
Of course, a Hunter wouldn't be bad either. But it's totally up to him/her. If we even decide on having one. It has been a long time, and I think we can support one now. _

_I'm not sure what's going to happen about our Nagrand trip. It defiantly will happen before I die in like 100 years. Heck, I'm only 100! (Which is young in human years, I'm not sure how young though. Maybe 23. I'm not sure.)_

_So, I don't know. Everything is up in the air now, and I have to get Tahlian's dinner ready. I'm not sure when I'll write again, or if there will be a new member of the family when I do. I'll tell you one thing though._

_Things should take an interesting turn._

A/N and that's it! I hope you liked it! I might make another story continuing it, if you guys want me to. So review and tell me how you liked it! Remember, it was my first FF. and tell me if you want me to continue (Which I probably will), but ill be writing about their pasts in another story, remember.

REEEEEVVVVVIIIIEEEEWWWWW! (Please!)

And I play on the Gnomeregan realm my username is Sunmoon. If you play WoW (I don't know if you do) whisper to me!! I'll gladly talk to you if I'm not busy, just tell me who you are, because my other friend has a habit of making alts so I just assume when a random low level whispers me its him (Shnook aka Dorbelo). Anyone who sees this and goes on to annoy me, I'll set my lil group of level 70 buddies on you and you will wish you were never born when an Inferal, Arcane Magic, and a lot more are pounding on you. MUHAHA. You have been warned.


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